Ju-52 D-AQUI

I had the pleasure to fly with D-AQUI in may, my missus showed up with two tickets for a roundflight over Munich

So did I; two days later… 😉

… although managed within the Lufthansa ticketing system.

Not quite; you buy tickets from the Lufthansa-Berlin Stiftung, but it flies under a Lufthansa flight number with a “J” for Junkers added to it. And you can’t claim any Lufthansa bonus miles… 🙁

… but always a Ju 52/3m with the three engines…

… whereby it’s worthwile to note that it has P&W R-1340 engines, as well as three-bladed propellers and ugly exhaust mufflers (the latter two features to avoid too many noise complaints…). We get to see the Swiss Ju 52’s (with BMW engines) in Munich quite often, and they do sound a bit different

Modly et all,

Thanks for posting the images, and information.

Prior to last Friday, the last time that I had seen one of these beasts in the skies was 23 years ago at the last airshow at Aberdeen in 1984, getting “bounced” by G-FIRE, with it’s cannon mounted strobes blazing away. A tad one sided perhaps, but enjoyable all the same. 😀

The machine in question that day was, I believe ,N9012P/G-BFHF – in fact a Casa 352L – now at the Auto und Technik Museum , which was flown on occasion by the late John ” Jeff” Hawke.

Can’t remember where I saw it but aparently she was with whatever Lufthansa was called in pre WWII days for a fairly short period before going to Norway as LN-???. In fact I’m pretty sure the article included a shot of her in her Norwegian markings. I’m not sure whether she was then commandeered by the Luftwaffe post invasion or returned to Germany post war. I’d like anyone who has the info to fill in those discrepances in my memory to either post the info on here or pm me, whichever takes their fancy as I’m easily pleased.:)

Mike, you can find LN-DAH in the background of this photo
http://www.pbase.com/vikingspirit/image/43052182

Martin

Some pictures of her in N52JU – markings in the US:
http://www.pbase.com/airlinerphotos/image/46628914
http://www.pbase.com/airlinerphotos/image/53010295
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0554717/L/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0157024/L/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0157023/L/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/0212421/L/

Tried to translate the story of the D-AQUI:

The Ju was built 1936 with s/n 5489 at the factory in Dessau.

Named “Fritz Simon” with marking D-AQUI she started to fly for Lufthansa on 10th of April 1936.

Shortly after that she was sold to Norway because the norwegian airline DNL was in urgent need of spareparts after the loss of a plane.

Fitted with floats and marked LN-DAH she flew at the norwegian cost region.

In April 1940 she was taken by the Wehrmacht, doing her job as troop-carrier. Half a year later she was transferred to the Lufthansa again named “Kurt Wintgens” with her old markings D-AQUI. Until the end of war she flew at the norwegian cost.

After the german capitulation 1945 the plane was given back to the norwegian airline, named “Askeladden” with markings LN-KAF.

During maintenance 1947 substantial corrosion was detected. “Spare part storage” here was another old ex-Lufthansa Ju.

Februar 1948 this Ju 52, which was now pieced together, started to fly again with markings LN-KAF (but with s/n 130714 of the military-fuselage) for the norwegian airline.

1956 she retired and after a holding time of approx. 1 year she was sold to the airline “Transportes Aéros Orientales” in Quito, Ecuador.

With her new markings HC-ABS and named “Amazonas” she flew passengers, goats, cows and other freight into the forest areas of south africa. 1963, after approx. 8000 flight hours, she nearly broke apart.

She was shut down and rotted for six years at the Quito airport.

The american pilot Lester Weaver got notice of this plane, bought it and got her back into the air in the US with markings N130LW (experimental-licence).

In 1975 Mr. Martin Caidin could not resist and bought this plane. He named it “Iron Annie” with markings N52JU and flew it on airshows across the USA.

1975 the plane was overhauled completely and fitted with Pratt & Whitney R1340 “Wasp” – engines.

In October 1984 the then-technical manager of Deutsche Lufthansa, Mr. Reinhardt Abraham, decided to purchase an active flying Ju 52 as a tradition-plane for the 60th anniversary of the Lufthansa on 26th of January 1986.

Martin Caidin agreed and sold the plane to the Lufthansa. On the 28th of December 1984 “Iron Annie” landed after a 16 day long, adventuresome flight from Florida over the US-east coast, Greenland, Iceland and Great Britain at the Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel- airport.

The plane managed an ice-cold flight of approx. 8000 kilometers over ice-deserts and the open Ocean more or less safely.

The the restoration – adventure began. Originally the historic condition of the plane had to be reconstructed.

But soon the technicians of the Lufthansa had to stop this project. Too much damage, no longer existing manufacturing engineering and increased safety requirements of the present air traffic required a complete
rebuild of the plane incl. manufacturing of corrugated iron parts.

Several components of the complete system, especially the electrical system, had to be redesigned and installed. The same problem applied to the instrumentation of the cockpit.

Extravagant expenses demanded the extensive work for approval in terms of type sample tests and flight tests, because the Federal Office of Aviation could not revert to existing documentation of approval.

They were getting lost in post war years and therefore the model Junkers Ju 52 did not exist officially in Germany until 1986!

After 16 months of intensive work, the “maiden flight” took place in April 1986.

The plane was named “Berlin-Tempelhof” with it’s historic markings D-AQUI and the official marking D-CDLH.

Until the end of the year 2000 the plane managed 4,918 flying hours in 9,624 flights with 109,124 passengers, since 1936 approx. 14,000 flying hours in 28,000 flights.

Enclosed some pictures of the fantastic performance (pilot Mr. Uwe-Karsten Badow) at the Hahnweide-Airshow September 9th 2007.

Can’t remember where I saw it but aparently she was with whatever Lufthansa was called in pre WWII days for a fairly short period before going to Norway as LN-???. In fact I’m pretty sure the article included a shot of her in her Norwegian markings. I’m not sure whether she was then commandeered by the Luftwaffe post invasion or returned to Germany post war. I’d like anyone who has the info to fill in those discrepances in my memory to either post the info on here or pm me, whichever takes their fancy as I’m easily pleased.:)

hi everybody, I had the pleasure to fly with D-AQUI in may, my missus showed up with two tickets for a roundflight over Munich 🙂
here’s a link to another post i made in the bucker forum with pics

http://sbeaver.tzo.com/Bucker/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=62&func=view&id=168&catid=10

as JDK said the pilot explained me that the new reg is due to weight issues, but I wonder what the details are (any german friend can help?).

Lufthansa made a specific webpage where they also publish the calendar of flights available for booking, the yummiest one being the visit to Flying Legends! 😀

Cheers!

Alex

Originaly it was floatplane…

From an old scan…

Loose-Head, just for you….:)

Originaly it was floatplane…

It’s actually the other way around. Because of a (I understand) weight-band to registration link in the current German system, the Junkers can’t actually have its original registration (D-AQUI) nowadays. Therefore she was registered D-CDLH, and had, like a military schemed aircraft, as Ollie notes, a dispensation to carry the original, but non functioning registration.

It was pointed out to me by Man on the Fence that most ATC will be carried out verbally, rather than line of sight, so calling ‘D-CDLH’ and displaying D-AQUI isn’t as confusing practically as it might seem.

In answer to the original question, the Junkers is used for pleasure flying, and wanders Europe doing so, although managed within the Lufthansa ticketing system.

It’s a very historic Junkers, with a fascinating history, including a period on floats, but it’s never been a Ju 52 (the single-engine version) but always a Ju 52/3m with the three engines.

Regards,

Thank you for the explanation. I had wonderd about what she calls as and then read MOTF post on planetalk. But the registration bugged me.

Just a question. How is she allowed to carry D-AQUI when she is registerd someting else? I know she carrys the correct registration under the tail and under the wings. How do other civil aircraft carry one registration but are registerd another? I understand how millitarr aircraft are allowed to not carry their registration.

It’s actually the other way around. Because of a (I understand) weight-band to registration link in the current German system, the Junkers can’t actually have its original registration (D-AQUI) nowadays. Therefore she was registered D-CDLH, and had, like a military schemed aircraft, as Ollie notes, a dispensation to carry the original, but non functioning registration.

It was pointed out to me by Man on the Fence that most ATC will be carried out verbally, rather than line of sight, so calling ‘D-CDLH’ and displaying D-AQUI isn’t as confusing practically as it might seem.

In answer to the original question, the Junkers is used for pleasure flying, and wanders Europe doing so, although managed within the Lufthansa ticketing system.

It’s a very historic Junkers, with a fascinating history, including a period on floats, but it’s never been a Ju 52 (the single-engine version) but always a Ju 52/3m with the three engines.

Regards,

Just a question. How is she allowed to carry D-AQUI when she is registerd someting else? I know she carrys the correct registration under the tail and under the wings. How do other civil aircraft carry one registration but are registerd another? I understand how millitarr aircraft are allowed to not carry their registration.

I’ll never forget that day I was on my way to the bus-stop from work in Edinburgh, looked up and saw what I thought was a very unusual shape coming towards me. Kept watching, thinking I was imagining it, and all of a sudden a silvery Ju52 comes buzzing into view! 😀

Found out it was for the opening of a new Lufthansa route from Edinburgh, but better yet the Junkers flew past again the next day – and others saw it, too, so I knew I hadn’t imagined it! 😀

Thanks Newforest.

No idea why it wsa there unless it was a joyriding flight. The aircraft is actually registered D-CDLH and is the oldest flying Ju. 52 in the world. It is based in Hamburg and was at one time owned by the, now deceased author, Martin Caidin.