Bremen (aircraft)

The Bremen D 1167 is an aircraft type Junkers W 33, which took place the first successful trans-Atlantic flight of an airplane from east to west. Previously this was only done with airships.

Transatlantic flight

After Charles Lindbergh in 1927, the first solo crossing of the Atlantic from West succeeded to east, planned Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld, who worked as a press officer with the North German Lloyd in Bremen, a flight in opposite direction, from Europe to America. He left at the Junkers works two aircraft of type Junkers W 33, Europe and Bremen baptized after the two flagships of the NDL, rebuild for long-haul flights.

After a first -started in Dessau Atlantic flight attempt had failed in August 1927 Hünefeld flew with the pilot Hermann Koehl and the Irish co-pilot James Fitzmaurice on April 12, 1928, the Bremen in a 36 - hour flight from Baldonnel, Ireland to Greenly Iceland to Newfoundland. There, the aircraft was damaged on landing. Although you could repair the damage, but the originally planned onward flight crew to New York could not take place because of an engine failure occurring. The planes left the Bremen back at her departure in Greenly Iceland.

Whereabouts of the aircraft

The aircraft was made ​​ready to go back to the lighthouse island of mechanics the Junkers Corporation. As the Junkers - pilot Fred Melchior wanted to start the plane on an uneven grassy ground, another accident occurred, so that the Bremen was ultimately transported to Quebec, where she was issued a few days. With a NDL steamer the plane then came to Bremen, from there to Dessau and after a short maintenance on the International Aerospace Exhibition (ILA ) in 1928 to Berlin, where the "Bremen" was an attraction at the Junkers stand.

Freiherr von Hünefeld offered the Bremen as a gift to the Deutsches Museum in Munich, which, however, refused, because although the machine has historical significance, but not " technically important stage of development " constitute. Hünefeld bequeathed the aircraft then the City Museum of New York, because - as he wrote in a newspaper - abroad those people who want to represent the sacrifice of their health and their last penny, putting their lives at the German name out in the world, not so to abandon maintains, as do their fellow countrymen permanently.

A NDL steamer brought the Bremen to New York. Since the City Museum of New York was not yet completed, the Bremen was suspended after Hünefelds death in February 1929 in the hall of the New York Central railway station. About ten years later, Henry Ford purchased the aircraft for the Edison Institute ( known as the Henry Ford Museum ) in Dearborn, where the Bremen was exhibited for several decades in a number of mostly American pioneer aircraft. End of the 20th century came the Bremen on loan again to Germany, she has since exhibited in the hall of Bremen at Bremen Airport.

On 1 January 2009, the airport Bremen GmbH took over the loan contract of the association we pick up the Bremen Bremen with the Henry Ford Museum, and thus the insurance and the return of the machine in less than ten years.

Commemorative

There is a commemorative medal made ​​of silver (25 grams, diameter 36 mm). The front shows the profiles of the three pilots. Inscription on the reverse: A will --- An act --- A victory --- Flight of the "Bremen " on April 13, 1928 edge lettering. Preuss. State coin.

Pictures of Bremen (aircraft)

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