Junkers Ju-52 - “Tante Ju”

Yes, the Ju-52 has a rather distinctive look. Meaning, it’s ugly –all angles, rivets and corrugated duralumin. But I absolutely wanted to build it, since it’s one of the most iconic passenger/transport planes of its era. This is probably only part one of the Iron Annie (its other nickname) Family Pack; the plane uploaded here is a boring, civilian passenger/freight version. Other versions can be found at these links;

Auxiliary bomber in the “Kondor Legion” - Spanish Civil War

Lower part version (1583 parts) -a typical German army transport of the Afrika Korps

The Ju-52 is best known as Germany’s main military transport in WW2, but the design dates back to 1930 and the plane was mainly a civilian airliner, sold all over the world and operated by 28 airlines.

Germany’s new “luftwaffe”, still small and clandestine, used it from 1935 onwards as an auxiliary bomber with a 1500 kg load; in this version the plane mainly served in the Spanish civil war. Its bombing career was rather short, since it lacked the speed and agility to survive fighter attacks. And so it started a long career as a military transport.

As a general workhorse, the Ju-52 was invaluable: it was cheap and simple, easy to maintain in the field, could fly on only two of its three engines, had the ability to withstand crash landings with reasonable safety and could take serious damage. It had good STOL performance, robust construction, and interchangeable wheel/ ski/float landing gear.

The plane wasn’t perfect of course; it was actually obsolete by the time WW2 started. The short takeoffs and landings were a plus, but it the air it was simply slow and sluggish. Despite a wealth of later and more capable replacements, the venerable Ju-52 was kept in production throughout the war. This was probably just German practicality at work; there were many planes of this type on hand at the beginning of the war, the engines were widely available, many pilots had been trained to it, and the manufacturing facilities were already set up.

In all, the Germans alone produced almost 5000 Ju-52’s during WW2. After the war, the Amiot aircraft company produced another 400 for the French army to serve in the Indochina war; Spanish CASA even kept the plane in production since it was used as a multi-role transport by the Spanish air force until 1975. Today, only about 10 Ju-52’s are still flying…

the build

I tried to make the plane as Ju-52-ish as possible, with attention to its specific shape and its rather ugly greenhouse-canopy. All versions have a full cockpit and a rudimentary interior, opening passenger & freight doors. The civilian and bomber versions have detailed engines and a hint of the corrugated duralumin skin; the Afrika Korps transport is a bit simplified to get the part count down for those who don’t have the processing power to fly 2-3k planes.

I think it turned out rather good, and the plane is quite recognizable as a Ju-52 in all its versions. But the proof of the pudding is in -well, in the upvotes in this case, I guess…

Flying the plane

Standard controls of course -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 (on all versions) and lower/retract the “dust bin” ventral gunner/bombardier position on the bomber version.

AG 1: open/close the passenger door
AG 2: open/close the freight door
AG 3: (military versions only) activates the gyro, locks out the plane’s controls and allows you to operate the gunner positions using pitch & yaw.
AG 4: (bomber version only) opens the bomb doors
AG 5: (bomber version only) drops all bombs
AG 8: toggle lights

The plane is easy to take off with and to land. For takeoff; half flaps, trim slider down, full throttle for the shortest takeoff run. Rotation at 120 to 150 km/h depending on the version -a loaded bomber needs a bit more speed and runway than an empty airliner. To land, just come in at half throttle and half flaps; before touching down go to full flaps and set ‘er down gently. Not too much can go wrong.

Have fun with Iron Annie!!