Hugo Junkers was a German engineer, pioneer in aeronautical construction, born on February 3, 1859 in Rheydt in the Rhineland and died on February 3, 1935 in Gauting, near Munich).
After his studies at the universities of Berlin, Karlsruhe and Aix-la-Chapelle, he founded with Wilhelm von Oechelhauser, the director of the company Continental-Gasgesellschaft of Dessau, a research institute for gas engines. This allows him to subsequently finance his other research work.
The results of the tests carried out in his own wind tunnel led him to make planes around metal structures, replacing any other material. In the years 1914-1915, he built the first all-metal aircraft in the world, the Junkers J 1. After the First World War, he built the F 13, the first all-metal commercial transport aircraft. This aircraft can be considered the prototype of all those that followed until the Ju 52, which was immensely successful in both its civil and military uses. Many of the wounded owed their salvation to their quick evacuation by the one they affectionately called Aunt Ju (pronounced 'you') because, just like ships in English, most planes are female in German.
As early as 1933, however, Hugo Junkers had been dispossessed of his factory by the National Socialist regime and had retired to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Junkers &Co was founded in 1895 by Hugo Junkers in Dessau. It originally produced various inventions of the founder such as gas stoves. Currently, Junkers is a Bosch Group brand.
However, the Junkers name is often attached to airplanes:in 1915, Hugo Junkers developed the first totally metal airplane, the Junkers J1. In 1928, Köhl, Hünefeld and Fitzmaurice crossed the Atlantic for the first time from east to west with a Junkers W33.
The best known aircraft produced by Junkers are undoubtedly the Junkers Ju 52/3m (known as Aunt Ju) and the infamous Junkers Ju 87 Stuka. Hugo Junkers died in 1935. The Junkers company built many aircraft during World War II.
Aircraft built by Junkers
* Junkers J 13 or F 13, 1919, single engine low wing all metal
* Junkers Ju W33, single engine, light transport, 1926
* Junkers Ju W34, single engine , light transport and reconnaissance, 1933
* Junkers Ju 52 Aunt Ju (Auntie Ju), transport + bombardment
* Junkers Ef 61, high-altitude fighter + reconnaissance (prototype)
* Junkers Ju 86, bomber + reconnaissance
* Junkers Ju 87 Stuka, dive bomber
* Junkers Ju 88, bomber + reconnaissance + night fighter
* Junkers Ju 89, heavy bomber (prototype)
* Junkers Ju 90, bomber (prototype)
* Junkers Ju 188, Rächer (Raecher), bomber
* Junkers Ju 248, re-designation of the Me 263
* Junkers Ju 252, transportation
* Junkers Ju 287, heavy bomber (jet) (prototype)
* Junkers Ju 288, bomber (prototype)
* Junkers Ju 290, bomber (prototype)
* Junkers Ju 322 Mammut, transport glider (prototype), 1941
* Junkers Ju 352 Herkules (Hercules), transport
* Junkers Ju 388 Störtebeker, reconnaissance + night fighter
* Junkers Ju 390, long range bomber
* Junkers Ju 488, heavy bomber