Junkers, Hugo

Born Feb. 3, 1859, in Rheydt; died Feb. 3, 1935, in Gauting. German aircraft designer and industrialist.

Junkers studied at technical institutes in Barmen, Berlin, Karlsruhe, and Aachen, graduating from the last in 1883 and specializing in heat engineering. In 1895 he founded his own gas equipment plant in Dessau, which became Junkers & Co. in 1917. From 1897 to 1912 he was a professor at the Rhine-Westphalia Technische Hochschule in Aachen. In 1910, Junkers began his work in aviation and obtained a patent on a design for a flying wing; in 1912 he constructed a wind tunnel. In 1915 and 1916 he manufactured the first all-metal airplanes with cantilever wings: the steel J 1 monoplane, the J 4 Duralumin, armor-plated ground-attack biplane, and the J 9 fighter plane. In 1919, Junkers, in collaboration with O. Reuter, designed the first all-Duralumin, six-seat, low-wing passenger plane (F 13), which was widely used in many countries, including the USSR. In later years Junkers’ firm built sports and transport planes, such as the G 38 and Ju 90, and diesel aircraft engines, production of which began in 1929.

In the early 1930’s, Junkers’ firm came under state control and manufactured mostly military planes, such as the Ju 86, Ju 87 and Ju 88, and engines. After World War II Junkers’ military complex was liquidated, and the remaining enterprises were incorporated into the Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blom concern.