Junkers Ju-52/1m

I suppose I’m kind of doing things backwards here. This Junkers Ju-52/1m is actually the mommy of my previous trimotor Ju-52/3m.
The design was started in 1928 as EF30 by Zindel and was somewhat based on the W33/W34. Like its predecessors, the Ju52 was designed as a single-engine cargo aircraft, albeit one which should offer more capacity than the earlier designs.

In February 1931 the aircraft was presented to the public for the first time at Tempelhof Airport, and the production for the first 12 aircraft of the Ju52 line was started in 1930. But Junkers failed in his forecast for the demand of larger cargo aircraft. Just one single-engine Ju52 could be sold to Canada. When the first seven aircraft were finished, Junkers decided to stop further production of this type; tests had shown that the trimotor version of the plane was much more promising. The fuselage of the 8th to 12th aircraft were converted to the 3-engine standard. The remaining Ju52’s were redesignated Ju52/1m (1 motor) to set them apart from the later Ju52/3m (3 motors) everyone’s familiar with.

Junkers K45c

You can download the K45c here if you’re a floatplane fan…. Like most Junkers aircraft designs of the 20’s and early 30’s, Junkers also developed a militarized version of the Ju52/1m. One of the seven prototypes (c/n 4004) was flown to A.B. Flygindustri at Limhamn in Sweden, where floats and torpedo mountings were added to the aircraft. This torpedo bomber versionwas designated as Junkers K45c. The K45c was flown back to Germany and was used by Junkers and the Luftwaffe for experimental torpedo bombings. Like the other Ju52/1m's the K45c was later used as a target aircraft… not a single Ju52/1m survived the war.

the build

Just like the only existing Ju52/1m in a museum, this is of course a conversion from the Ju52/3m. Although the fuselage and wings are largely identical to those of the later 3m’s, the 1m has a distinctive nose holding the water-cooled V12 engine, large freight doors on both sides, and quaint (and possible quite useless) windows.

At the very least, it clearly shows the Ju53/3m’s lineage.

Flying the plane

Standard controls for pitch, yaw, roll. VTOL down for flaps, the trim slider is for pitch trim. Since the Ju-52 has fixed landing gear, gear up/down will operate only the landing lights.

AG 1: open/close the windows
AG 2: open/close the freight doors
AG 4: (K45c only) lowers the float rudders when at speeds < 70 km/h
AG 8: toggle lights

It’s an easy and forgiving plane, just like the real one supposedly was. And like the real one, it’s awfully slow and ponderous…

Enjoy!