Junkers G 31

The Junkers G 31 was an advanced three-engined, all-metal, low-wing airliner designed and built by Junkers in the mid 1920s as a larger, more comfortable and simpler follow-up to the G 24. Ernst Zindel led the design team and persuaded Hugo Junkers to give up retractable landing gear, because the drag saved would not outweigh the added weight, cost and complexity. The planned Junkers L5 inline engines proved too weak and the Napier Lion too expensive, so most G 31s flew with licence-built foreign air-cooled radial engines in the 500 hp range. The aircraft could maintain level flight with one engine stopped, and its cabin typically held eleven seats plus jump seats, with up to ten beds for night flights or 15 beds as an air ambulance. It was the first Deutsche Luft Hansa airliner to carry a flight attendant, who served food and drink, which earned it the nickname flying dining car.