Role Transport aircraft, medium bomber, airliner
Manufacturer Junkers
Designer Ernst Zindel
First flight 13 October 1930 (Ju 52/1m);
7 March 1932 (Ju 52/3m)
Status In limited use
Primary users Luftwaffe
Luft Hansa
Spanish Air Force
Bulgarian Air Force
Produced 1931–1945 (Germany)
1945–1947
(France)
1945 –1952 (Spain)
Number built 4,845
The Ju 52 was similar to the company's previous Junkers W 33, although larger. In 1930, German aeronautical engineer Ernst Zindel and his team designed the Ju 52 at the Junkers works at Dessau. According to aviation author J. Richard Smith, the Ju 52 directly drew upon the company's First World War-era Junkers J 1 - the world's first all-metal aeroplane..
The Ju 52 had a low cantilever wing, the midsection of which was built into the fuselage, forming its underside. It was formed around four pairs of circular cross-section duralumin spars with a corrugated surface that provided torsional stiffening. A narrow control surface, with its outer section functioning as the aileron, and the inner section functioning as a flap, ran along the whole trailing edge of each wing panel, well separated from it. The inner flap section lowered the stalling speed and the arrangement became known as the Doppelflügel, or "double wing". The outer sections of this operated differentially as ailerons, projecting slightly beyond the wingtips with control horns. The strutted horizontal stabilizer carried horn-balanced elevators which again projected and showed a significant gap between them and the stabilizer, which was adjustable in-flight. All stabilizer surfaces were corrugated.
The Ju 52 featured an unusual corrugated duralumin metal skin, which had been pioneered by Junkers during the First World War; the corrugation served to strengthen the whole structure over a smoother approach. The fuselage was of rectangular section with a domed decking, comprising a tubular steel structure that was entirely covered by the corrugated metal skin. A port-side passenger door was placed just aft of the wings; this entrance also acted as a loading hatch for freight, the lower half functioning as a platform to ease cargo movements. The cabin had a dimensional capacity of 590 cubic feet, and was lined with numerous windows stretching forward to the pilots' cockpit. The main undercarriage was fixed and divided; some aircraft had wheel fairings, others did not. A fixed tailskid, or a later tailwheel, was used. Some aircraft were fitted with floats or skis instead of the main wheels.
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During its service with Luft Hansa, the Ju 52 had proved to be an extremely reliable passenger airplane. This positive experience contributed to its adoption by the Luftwaffe as a standard aircraft model.
Lightly armed, and with a top speed of only 265 km/h (165 mph) — half that of a contemporary Hurricane — the Ju 52 was very vulnerable
The Colombian Air Force used three Ju 52/3mde bombers equipped as floatplanes during the Colombia-Peru War in 1932–1933.