Junkers W 33

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Junkers W 33
Working on a Junkers ocean plane
Type: Multipurpose aircraft
Design country:

German EmpireGerman Empire German Empire

Manufacturer:

Junkers Flugzeugwerk AG

First flight:

June 17, 1926

Commissioning:

1926

Production time:

1926-1934

Number of pieces:

199

The Junkers W 33 is a further development of the proven Junkers F 13 with the same wingspan . The W 33 was also designed as a single - engine low - wing aircraft.

Development and versions

Tank arrangement in the wing

The first flight took place on June 17, 1926 with the D 921 (serial number 794). A Junkers L 5 (228 kW) was used as the engine. The aircraft, still with the driver's seat open and now on floats, took part in the German Sea Flight Competition in Warnemünde from July 12 to 23 , with Junkers pilot Langanke taking second place.

Later variants were equipped with Junkers L 5 G (313 kW) engines. A W 33 was used for flight tests of the Jumo 210 developed by Junkers Motorenwerke . A total of 199 W 33 aircraft were manufactured. The later Luftwaffe used many W 33s in the A / B schools .

The W 33, actually designed as a cargo aircraft , was characterized by a spacious, windowless cabin, which contributed significantly to the elegant appearance of this type. The machines later used in combined transport were given one or two windows on each side.

After the German-Russian transport company had used Deruluft W 33 on its routes, the USSR also acquired several aircraft of the type from 1928 and used them as postal aircraft under the designation PS-4 until 1941 in the Arctic regions and in Siberia , where they were used well proven.

First transatlantic non-stop flight from east to west

The Junkers W33 Bremen after its east-west flight across the Atlantic

Because the aircraft's good aerodynamic design resulted in low fuel consumption , conquering the Atlantic non-stop in an east-west direction appeared to be entirely possible.

This flight was carefully prepared in the Junkers aircraft and engine works in Dessau . The Junkers L 5 engine with serial number 2504 (registration D-1167 ) was brought to 265 kW and a metal propeller was installed. Various additional tanks provided more range . Two attempts to initially set a record for endurance flights almost ended in catastrophes due to minor defects . In the end, the company pilots Edzard and Risticz managed to set the endurance flight record to 52 hours 11 minutes. From July 5 to 7, 1928, Risticz, this time together with Zimmermann, was even able to increase this performance to 65 hours and 25 minutes, covering 5066 kilometers on a closed track.

On August 14, 1927, the first attempt to cross the Atlantic with two specially prepared machines of the type W 33 began; the Bremen and the Europa , which failed due to bad weather. Three quarters of a year later, in March 1928, the pilot Hermann Köhl from the DLH and the owner of the Bremen Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld made a second attempt to Baldonnel ( Ireland ). Instead of the planned second pilot provided by Junkers, Baldonnel's airfield commander, Major James Fitzmaurice , was accepted into the team as a co-pilot. Since the airfield was softened due to heavy rainfall, it was not possible to take off until April 12, 1928. The first non-stop flight from east to west ended after 36.5 hours on Greenly Island , a small island off the Labrador Peninsula .

The Atlantis on a beach in Western Australia

In 1932 the Remscheid pilot Hans Bertram set off from Cologne on a flight to China in a Junkers W 33 equipped with floats, which was named Atlantis . The purpose of the flight was to raise funds for the establishment of the Chinese Air Force. A detour via Australia was spontaneously taken. The Atlantis got off course on a night flight from East Timor to Darwin (Australia) due to a wind offset in a storm and was stranded in the Kimberleys with the last drop of gasoline . Only after 53 days were Hans Bertram and his on-board mechanic Adolf Klausmann rescued. The story of the involuntary adventure and the return flight gained worldwide fame in his book "Flight into Hell". The W 33 “Atlantis” was handed over to Junkers after returning to Berlin. Their whereabouts are not known.

Technical specifications

Two-sided tear W33 Bremen
Parameter Dates (1926) Dates (1928, long-haul version for Atlantic flight)
crew 2-3 2
Passengers up to 6 1
length 10.50 m 10.90 m
span 17.75 m 18.35 m
height 2.90 m 3.50 m
Wing area 43.00 m² 46.00 m²
Wing loading 49.00 kg / m² 85.50 kg / m²
Empty mass 1200 kg 1350 kg
Payload 900 kg 2350 kg
Takeoff mass 2100 kg 3700 kg
Engine a six - cylinder four-stroke in - line engine
Type Junkers L 5 with a compression ratio of 5.5: 1 Junkers L 5 with a compression ratio of 7: 1
power 228 kW (310 hp) 265 kW (360 hp)
Top speed 197 km / h 195 km / h
Cruising speed 155 km / h 150 km / h
Service ceiling 5800 m
Range 1000 km 7000 km

Preserved copies

The Junkers W33 Bremen get them in the Bremenhalle

The Bremen record aircraft was acquired by Henry Ford for his museum in Dearborn . An interest group from Bremen brought the famous aircraft back to Germany in April 1997. After a restoration by Lufthansa, the Junkers W 33 has been on loan in the Bremenhalle since July 1998 .

For the film adaptation of the book "Flight in the Hell" by Hans Bertram for Australian television, technicians from the Australian Air Force, the Navy and television recreated the Atlantis on a 1: 1 scale. Today the W 33 c is in the Australian Aviation Museum in Bankstown .

See also

literature

  • Alois Robert Böhm: Junkers cargo plane W33 as transocean plane "Bremen". In: Journal of the Association of German Engineers , Volume 72, No. 40 (October 6, 1928), pp. 1435–1440
  • Peter W. Cohausz: German aircraft until 1945 , Aviatic Verlag, ISBN 978-3-942645-12-6
  • Günter Schmitt: Junkers and his planes . Transpress, Berlin 1986, ISBN 3-344-00192-2 .

Web links

Commons : Junkers W 33  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bernd Junkers: The first east-west crossing of the Atlantic. In: Hugo Junkers: A life for technology. JUMA Verwaltungsges.mbH, accessed on August 5, 2015 .
  2. ↑ www.bremenflug.de: The flight of the BREMEN