Junkers Ju.52/3m in Norwegian and Polish service

 

The Junkers Ju.52/3m is a German cargo plane which was manufactured by the thousands and saw service worldwide, in every continent. Among its many users, we're covering the following ones in this post:

• Norway: The Norwegian airline Det Norske Luftfartselskap (DNL - Norwegian national airline, forerunner of Norwegian Air Lines) acquired 6 float-equipped Junkers Ju.52/3m (according to some sources they were just four) in 1935. In June 1936 the first Ju.52/3m (which crashed shortly after making its first maiden voyage, on 16th June and had to be replaced by a new one two weeks later) was delivered to serve in a seasonal summer route between Bergen and Tromso with flights three times per week with stopovers at Alesund, Molde, Kristiansund, Trondheim, Bronnoysund, Sandnessjoen, Bodo, Narvik and Harstad. 
  In 1937 DNL moved the departure point to Gressholmen seaplane port, in Oslo, the Norwegian capital. 
  They kept on serving with DNL until the outbreak of the war when the Marinens Flyvevesen (Norwegian for Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service) took one into service in January 1940 (though some sources claim it was in December 1939) and fitted with a ventral defensive machine gun gondola, plus another one in a dorsal position. It served until 9th April. 
  When Norway was occupied, the Luftwaffe took over every aircraft from DNL. However, after the war, one that was originally registered as LN-DAH was taken back and served until 1956.
  Two ex-Luftwaffe Ju.52/3mg7es were taken over on VE-Day (8th May 1945) and, together with LN-DAH, they were incorporated into DNL's fleet. One Ju.52/3m registered as LN-LAB, crashed in May 1946 at Snaroya, close to Oslo. In August that year some Ju.52 were taken by the Kongelige Norske Luftforsvaret (KNL - Royal Norwegian Air Force) and served until September 1950 when they were sold to Portugal.
• Poland: On 16th November 1936, LOT (Polskie Linie Lotnicze LOT S.A.) received a single Ju.52/3m powered by Bristol Pegasus engines in exchange for nine Junkers F-13s. This Ju.52/3m was registered as SP-AKX and, from early 1937 onwards, it flew regular flights from Warsaw to Berlin, Rome and Salonique, in Greece. As this machine was powered by Pegasus engines, which were heavier than the original BMW's ones, an extra water tank was installed at the rear of the aircraft to get the right centre of gravity when in flight. 
  This machine was widely used, recording a total of 600 flight hours in 1937 and 843 hours in 1938 suffering no accidents or setbacks whatsoever. At the outbreak of World War 2, it was flown from Zabczyce, close to the city of Pinsk, in Polesie, to the Romanian capital, Bucharest on 12th September 1939 where it was planned to be sold to Turkey but, eventually, it was fictionally sold to Imperial Airways and received the registration G-AGAE.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Junkers_Ju_52_operators

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LOT_Polish_Airlines

3. https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Det_Norske_Luftfartselskap (translated)

4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Air_Lines

5. https://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snarø-ulykken (translated)

6. https://www.polrail.com/Aerolot/history/ju52inlot.html

7. Signal Squadron - Aircraft In action 186 - Junkers Ju-52 in Action

Marinens Flyvebaatfabrikk M.F.9

Due to a malfunction in the power supply, we're posting later than usual.
The M.F. 9 was a Norwegian floatplane fighter which was unofficially known as the "Hoverjager". It was designed by Johan Hover and built by the Marinens Flyvebätfabrikk (Navy Flying Boat Factory) at Horten, Norway. The prototype was flown for the first time on 4th June 1925 and was an unequal-span unstaggered single-bay biplane made out of wood powered by a 300hp Hispano-Suiza Type 42 eight-cylinder water-cooled engine with strut-mounted Lamblin radiators. It was armed with one synchronised 7.62mm Colt machine gun. Three additional machines were built for evaluation by Marinens Flyvevaesen and flown in May 1926. By that time the prototype had already stablished a new European altittude record of 28.215ft (8.600m).
To correct the prototype's spinning flaws, these and the next four M.F.9s, which were completed during July and August 1928 were fitted with a larger rudder, being called M.F.9B. The original prototype was lost in an accident and a replacement was built and flown in June 1930 with six further ones built during the spring and summer of 1932, being two of those replacements for another two aircrafts lost in accidents. The last production aircraft was fitted with redesignated tail surfaces, with the tailplane raised and strut-braced with a central fin added. One aircraft was experimentally fitted with a licensed-built 425hp Bristol Jupiter engine air-cooled radial engine.
The tendency to spin and its extreme control sensibility rendered this fighter very unpopular among Norwegian pilots, but it remained in active service until 1936 nonetheless. Every M.F.9 was scrapped during the second half of the 1930s except for one which was kept by the ministry of defence to be preserved in a museum. It was, however, burnt by the German occupation forces.

Sources:
1. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marinens_Flyvebaatfabrikk_M.F.9

Asja Jaktfalk II - Foreign Users

Yes, that's the roundel used by the Swedish Air Force during the late 20s and mid 30s.

As we are covering it's foreign users, we are leaving technical descriptions for later.

The Asja Jaktfalk was a Swedish single-seat biplane fighter built in the late 20s, but it's most developed version, the Jaktfalk II, saw the light in 1932.

The Asja Jaktfalk was firstly tested by military representatives of both Argentina and the Empire of Japan, but they placed no orders as they weren't satisfied by it's performance, however we decided to draw some paintjobs to see how they would've looked like if they had bought them.
They also served in the Finnish Air Force who received three of them on 8th December 1939 as part of the Swedish help on the Finnish winter war. As they were seriously outdated, they were used for training purposes at the airfield of Kauhava until as late as 1945 when they were all scrapped.
Apparently, it also served with the Latvian navy, however as we only could find a text reference on wikipedia to this, the Lavtian profile of this airplane should be considered speculative.
Finally a modified version, powered by an Armstrong Siddeley Panther IIIA engine was built for Norway in order to test it against the British Hawker Fury.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svenska_Aero_Jaktfalken
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

Armstrong Whitworth Scimitar

We're back! After some refreshing holidays we're ready to bring you even more drawings.

The Armstrong Whitworth Scimitar was a British single-seat fighter biplane that was designed and built by Armstrong Whitworth.

The whole design was basically an improvement of their previous design, the Armstrong Whitworth AW.16. It was powered by a 735hp Armstrong Siddeley Panther engine with an enlarged fin and rudder and, in fact, the first prototype bearing the civilian registration of G-ACCD was a modified AW.16. It flew for the first time on 29th April 1935.

It was armed with two 0.303-in Vickers type E machine guns placed in the front and provision was made to carry four 9kg bombs under the main fuselage.

The Norwegian Army Air Service ordered four Scimitars which were delivered in 1936 and, when Germany invaded Norway in 1940, they were undergoing maintenance and weren't available for combat.

The second prototype of the Scimitar remained preserved in the A.W. at Whitley until 1958 when it was scrapped.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armstrong_Whitworth_Scimitar
2. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters