Junkers F 13

The Junkers F 13 is the world's first all-metal transport aircraft, designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Junkers.

Produced shortly after the end of the First World War, it was a cantilever-wing monoplane with enclosed accommodation for four passengers and a two seat open cockpit. Like all Junkers duralumin-structured designs, from the 1918 J 7 to the 1932 Ju 46, (some 35 models), it has an aluminium alloy (duralumin) structure entirely covered with Junkers' characteristic corrugated and stressed duralumin skin. Internally, the wing was built up on nine circular cross-section duralumin spars with transverse bracing. All control surfaces were horn balanced.

A total of 322 aircraft were manufactured, a considerably large number for a commercial airliner of the era, and were operated all over the world. It accounted for over a third of air traffic in the early 1920s. It remained in production for thirteen years and in commercial service for more than thirty. There were many versions including floatplanes for water landing, skis, mailplane, and different engines. Several survive in various states of repair in museums, and a replica of the type was put back in production in the 2010s, taking flight once again nearly a century after the type first flew.

Development

What would become the F 13 originated in the work of Professor Hugo Junkers and his Research Institute in Dessau, Germany throughout the 1910s. These efforts were responsible for producing multiple new ideas pertaining not only to aerodynamics but also the employment and working of lightweight metal construction in aviation.