Junkers A 50

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Junkers A 50
Junkers A 50 in the Deutsches Museum
Junkers A 50 in the Deutsches Museum
Type: Sport plane
Design country:

German EmpireGerman Empire German Empire

Manufacturer:

Junkers

First flight:

February 13, 1929

Number of pieces:

69

Rear view, 1929
Side view of the fuselage, 1929
Version with floats on Lake Balaton near Siófok , 1930

The Junkers A 50 was a single-engine, two-seat, all-metal light aircraft whose maiden flight took place on February 13, 1929. The construction built by Junkers & Co. was designed by Hermann Pohlmann (1894–1991) and used the light metal corrugated sheet planking typical of Junkers aircraft. The machine was sometimes referred to as the A 50 "Junior".

Type history

After the first flight in February 1929, a total of five prototypes were built in the course of the year to test various engines. Junkers hoped for a production number of 5,000 copies of the A 50, which was intended as a kind of people's aircraft, but only 69 could be produced during the construction period, as the aircraft was quite expensive at around 16,000 Reichsmarks; In addition, there was a global economic crisis from October 1929 . Only 50 of the machines built were sold. These planes went to Finland , Switzerland , Japan , Portugal , South Africa , Great Britain , Brazil and Australia , among others . Some machines were also used by airlines . Several A 50s took part in the European sightseeing flights of 1929 and 1930 .

If there was no passenger on board, the unoccupied space could be closed with a cover. From the A 50ce onwards, the wings could be folded onto the fuselage for a road overpass.

tries

A number of experimental conversions were tried out with the A 50. A unicycle undercarriage was tested that had a wheel centrally under the fuselage. There were resilient runners under the wings.

One machine was converted to a high-decker . Experiments with a variable angle of incidence of the wing were made on this machine .

Records

Marga von Etzdorf in her Junkers A 50ce

The A 50 type set a number of FAI world records. In the design with floats and the 59 kW Armstrong-Siddeley-Genet engine:

  1. June 4, 1930: altitude of 5652 m without passengers
  2. June 4, 1930: altitude of 4614 m with one passenger
  3. June 6, 1930: 900.180 km range (for the closed course with one passenger)
  4. June 6, 1930: 8:27 h flight time (for the closed course with one passenger)
  5. June 6, 1930: Average speed 164.30 km / h (on a closed course with one passenger)
  6. June 13, 1930: 2100.420 km range (for the closed course without passengers )
  7. June 13, 1930: 16:29 h flight time (for the closed course without passengers)
  8. June 13, 1930: Average speed of 165.44 km / h (on closed course without passengers)

In 1930, Marga von Etzdorf was the first woman to fly alone from Berlin to Tokyo with her yellow Junkers Junior.

variants

Wing folding mechanism of the A-50
A 50

Basic model with a 59 kW Armstrong-Siddeley-Genet engine. The wings are still without a V-position.

A 50ba

V-shaped wings, 59 kW Walter engine

A 50be

V-shaped wings, but Armstrong Siddeley Genet with 59 kW

A 50ce

Wings with V-position; with 63 kW Armstrong Siddeley Genet II engine, also equipped with the Genet Major I with 74 kW for export . Foldable wings

A 50ci

V-shaped wings with a 65 kW Siemens & Halske Sh 13 engine. Foldable wings

A 50fe

V-shaped wings, 63 kW Armstrong-Siddeley-Genet II engine, additional modifications to the airframe , folding wings

Received aircraft

A 50 and Junkers G 38

One copy is in the Deutsches Museum in Munich, one is in the departure hall of Helsinki-Vantaa Airport .

A third aircraft was exported to Australia in the 1930s and flew there with interruptions until the 1990s. At the beginning of 2009 this A 50 was brought to Germany to the “Hugo Junkers” technology museum in Dessau , where it is waiting for restoration on loan from a private collector.

Technical specifications

Three-sided view of the Junkers A 50
Parameter Data
crew 2
length 7.12 m
span 10.00 m
height 2.40 m
Wing area 13.70 m²
Wing extension 7.3
Wing loading 43.80 kg / m²
Empty mass 360 kg
Payload 240 kg
Takeoff mass 600 kg
Top speed 172 km / h
Cruising speed 145 km / h
Climb performance 2.80 m / s
Service ceiling 4600 m
Range 600 km

See also

Web links

Commons : Junkers A 50  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bruno Lange: Type manual of German aviation technology. A reference work on German powered aircraft, airships, aircraft engines, turbo and rocket engines, missiles, propellers, on-board instruments, radio systems and on-board weapons from the beginning until today (= Deutsche Luftfahrt. Vol. 9). Bernard & Graefe, Koblenz 1986, ISBN 3-7637-5284-6 , p. 185.
  2. ↑ a b Deutsches Museum: Junkers A 50 "Junior", accessed on May 15, 2010
  3. ↑ Junkers flies above gate 28. In: helsinki-vantaa.fi . Archived from the original on May 9, 2012 ; retrieved on June 29, 2020 (English, formerly D-1915 ): "Registration number: OH-ABB - The first two letters of the suffix, AB are the initials of Bremer's wife, Astrid Bremer, and the second B signifies that the plane was Bremer's second. "
  4. ↑ Junkers.de: ( Memento from August 30, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Junkers A 50 WNr. 3517
  5. ↑ Peter W. Cohausz: Junkers A 50 Junior - a legend returns . In: Flugzeug Classic . No. 4 , 2009, ISSN  1617-0725 , p. 32-36 .
  6. ^ Günter Schmitt: Junkers and his planes . Transpress, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-344-00192-2 , p. 182/183 .