OBITUARY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22026, 5 February 1935, Page 9

OBITUARY

DR. HUGO JUNKERS PROMINENCE IN AVIATION (Received February 4, 5.5 p.m.) MUNICH. Feb. 3 The death has occurred of Dr. Hugo Junkers, constructor of aeroplanes and inventor and manufacturer of aeroplane engines.

The late Dr. Junkers was born at Rheydt, Westphalia, in February 1859, and studied engineering at the technical colleges of Berlin, Karlsruhe and Aachen. In 1890 he began researches into gas engines. Five years later he started at Dessau the firm of Junkers and Company, which made heating apparatus of all kinds. From ]897 to 1912 he taught at the Aachen college. As the result of his investigations ?oito oildriven motors he took out a patent in 1907, and 1910 marked his first step toward aircraft designing in the shape of a glider for which he secured patent rights. In 1913 he started more works, but when the war broke out devoted his energies to building aeroplanes, his first all-metal machine being completed in 1915. The Junkers Aircraft Company was founded at Dessau in 1919, in which year Dr. Junkers built the Fl3, the first all-metal aeroplane for. use in civil aviation. The Peace Treaty led to the closing of the Dessau works for a year. Nevertheless he made his undertaking one of the biggest of its kind in the world. He started works at Moscow in

1920. In the following year he inaugurated regular mail and passenger flights in Germany and in 1926 his air services were taken over by the Lufthansa. • Until 1926 the German Government had a share in the Junkers works, but Dr. Junkers then became their sole proprietor. Their importance is shown by the fact that a few years ago a third of the world's air services were carried out in Junkers aeroplanes. He had shares in almost all the big companies, including thrtise in Russia and South America. By 1928 the output of the Junkers works was 1000 machines a year. One of them was the Bremen, in which Huirefeld and Koehl flew from Ireland to Canada. Others aro the huge G3B, then the biggest land aeroplane in the world, the "flying restaurant" G3l, and the smaller Fl3, which was found on all the air routes. In 1930 he designed an oil motor for aeroplanes. Dr. Junkers was never financed by the banks. The money he needed for the development of his aviation firm he obtained from the profits of his heating apparatus factory. He was the father of 12 children, the eldest of whom was killed while flying in South America in 1925.