Junkers Ju 252

The Junkers Ju 252 was a German three-engined cargo aircraft intended to replace the Junkers Ju 52/3m in airline service. It grew out of talks between Junkers and Deutsche Lufthansa in December 1938, and the EF.77 design was to be a pressurized airliner seating up to 35. It was powered by three Junkers Jumo 211F V-12 engines, and compared with the Ju 52 it was about twice as heavy, more than 100 km/h faster and far longer ranged. It carried the Trapoklappe, a hydraulic rear loading ramp first tried on Ju 90 prototypes that lifted the tail so that the cargo floor lay level, a feature found on most military airlift aircraft since. The first flight took place on 1 August 1942. The Air Ministry wanted a replacement that used little strategic material, so only fifteen Ju 252 transports were completed before production switched to the wooden-winged, radial-engined Ju 352.