Junkers F 13

F 13
Junkers F 13 over the Aérodrome de Cerny-La-Ferté-Alais
General information
Typepassenger transport
ManufacturerJunkers
Designer
Otto Reuter
Primary usersJunkers Luftverkehr
Number built322
History
Manufactured1919–1932
Introduction date1920
First flight25 June 1919[1]
Retiredlate 1930s

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.

  1. ^ Wagner 1996, [page needed].