Junkers W 33
The Junkers W 33 is a further development of the proven Junkers F 13 with the same span as this. The W 33 was designed as a single-engine low-wing monoplane.
Development and Versions
The first flight took place with the D 921 ( serial number 794 ) on 17 June 1926. As a motor Junkers L 5 came (228 kW ) are used. The aircraft, still with an open driver's seat and now on floats, took little later, from 12 to 23 July at the German Seeflugwettbewerb in Warnemünde part where the Junker pilot Langanke thus took second place.
Later versions were equipped with engines Junkers L 5 G ( 313 kW). A W 33 also served as the flight testing of the developed by the Junkers Jumo 210 engine plants total, 199 airplanes of the type W 33 were produced. The later Luftwaffe used many W 33 in the A / B-schools.
The actually designed as a cargo plane W 33 was characterized by a large, windowless cabin, which contributed significantly to the elegant appearance of this type. The machines later used in combined transport received one or two windows on each side.
After the German - Russian transport company Deruluft had W 33 used on their lines, acquired in 1928, the USSR several aircraft of the pattern and put them under the designation PS -4- 1941 as mail planes in the Arctic regions and Siberia, where they well proven.
First transatlantic non-stop flight from East to West
Because the good aerodynamic Through education of the aircraft resulted in a low fuel consumption, thus a Atlantikbezwingung appeared in the non-stop flight in east-west direction as quite possible.
This flight was carefully prepared in the Junkers aircraft and engine plant in Dessau. The engine Junkers L 5 of the serial number 2504 ( registration D 1167 ) was brought to 265 kW and a metal propeller mounted. Various auxiliary tanks made for more coverage. Two trials initially create a duration flight record, both ended in almost disaster due to minor defects. It finally succeeded in the company pilots and Edzard Risticz but to screw the duration flight record at 52 hours 11 minutes. From 5 to July 7, 1928 Risticz could increase this time together with Zimmermann, this performance even at 65 hours, 25 minutes while 5066 kilometers back loaded on a closed track.
On August 14, 1927, the first attempt at a transatlantic crossing began with two specially prepared object of type W 33; the Bremen and Europa, which, however, failed due to bad weather. Nine months later, the pilot Hermann Koehl by DLH and the owner of Bremen Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld started on a second trial in March 1928 Baldonnel (Ireland). Instead of the intended second, provided by Junkers pilots, the airfield commander of Baldonnel, Major James Fitzmaurice was added as co-pilot in the team. Due to heavy rainfall and therefore softened airfield could be started only on 12 April 1928. The first non-stop flight from East to West ended after 36.5 hours on Greenly Iceland, a small, the Labrador Peninsula barrier island.
In 1932 the Remscheid pilot Hans Bertram broke from Cologne with a completely equipped with floats Junkers W 33, which bore the name of Atlantis, on a flight to China. Purpose of the flight was finally collecting funds for the construction of the Chinese Air Force. A detour over Australia was taken on a whim. This came from the Atlantis on a night flight from East Timor to Darwin ( Australia) offset by wind in a storm off course and stranded with the last drop of petrol in the Australian Kimberley. Only after 53 days Hans Bertram and his flight engineer Adolf Klaus Mann were saved again. The history of involuntary adventure and the return flight gained in his book " Flight to Hell " global awareness. The W 33 "Atlantis" was passed back to Junkers after returning to Berlin. Their further fate is not known.