Junkers Ju.52/3m in Switzerland

 The Junkers Ju.52/3m is a German cargo plane that was manufactured from 1931 until the early 1950s, though not by Junkers from 1945 onwards and saw service with numerous users all around the globe.

Switzerland was one of those users when in October 1939, the Swiss Air Force received three Ju.52/3mg4e for navigator and observer training duties. Those three Junkers, which bore the serial numbers 6580, 6595 and 6610, were re-registered in Swiss registrations, A-701/HB-HOS, A-702/ HB-HOT and A-703/HB-HOP respectively.

They were employed in transport duties apart from their original training purpose. 

After World War 2, they suffered some minor alterations; the main landing gears were replaced with those built by Amiot for the AAC.1 Toucan and the tail wheel was replaced with spare nose wheels from De Havilland DH.100 Vampire FB.6 which Switzerland bought in 1946. The Swiss Junkers were kept in active with the Swiss Air Force until September 1982, for 43 straight years.

All three of them were sold to the company Ju-Air at Dübendorf, which also bought additional CASA 352/A. One of the original Ju.52/3mg4e, HB-HOT suffered an unfortunate crash on 4th August 2018 when on a sightseeing flight, killing all 20 people on board.

 

Sources:

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

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

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accidents_and_incidents_involving_the_Junkers_Ju_52

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

Morane-Saulnier Ms.406, Swiss Users

 

The Morane-Saulnier Ms.406 is a French fighter aircraft developed and manufactured by Morane-Saulnier from 1938 onwards. With more than 1.000 exemplars manufactured, it was exported to many countries, among them, Switzerland.

In 1938, Switzerland bought a manufacturing license for the Ms.406. Two Ms.406H (the letter 'H' in this case stands for 'Helvétique', the gentilic word in French for 'Swiss') were supplied to the Swiss in September 1938 and April 1939 to serve as a pattern for the D.3800 (the name given to the Swiss-made Ms.406). Both this and the Ms.406H held the wing design of the earlier Ms.405, but were powered by the Hispano-Suiza 12Y-31 engine, which was the same one that powered the regular variants of the Ms.406. 

Eight pre-series machines were completed at Eidgenoessische Konstruktionswerkstaette (more commonly known as EKW) with the engines built at Adolph Saurer AG driving a new type of fully adjustable propeller. The original French instruments were replaced with Swiss versions and the drum-feed MAC machine guns were also replaced with locally designed and built belt-fed guns which eliminated the bulges present in the French versions and avoiding the freezing problems present in the French guns. The first EKW D.3800 was completed in November 1939 and those eight pre-production models, were followed by a production order of further 74 aircraft, which by 29th August 1940, were all delivered. In 1942 two additional machines were assembles from spare parts set aside in the original production run. 

During 1944 and 1945 the Swiss managed to shot down various German and Allied bombers that had entered Swiss airspace. By this time, the surviving aircraft were modified with new cooling and hydraulic installations and were also fitted with ejector exhausts. These modifications raised the type to the EKW D.3801 which was, esthetically, identical except for the engine set. At the end of the war the remaining aircraft were used as advanced trainers until the last one was scrapped in 1954.

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_M.S.406#Swiss_variants

2. https://www.valka.cz/EKW-D-3800-t167652

3. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters

EKW D.3801

 

The EKW (Eidgenpssisches Flugzeugwerke) was a Swiss-made variant of the French Morane-Saulnier Ms.412 fighter.

In the late 1930s, just before the beginning of the World War 2, the Swiss Air Force acquired some Morane-Saulnier Ms.406H fighters which were designed specifically for export to Switzerland (hence the letter H -for "Helvétique"- in the denomination) and even produced some of them under license, called EKW D.3800 (which will be the subject of a future post). 

The D.3801 was an improved version of the regular D.3800 powered by a single Hispano-Suiza 12Y-51 engine which could deliver 1.050 hp of power at take-off and was armed with four 7.5 mm machine guns placed in the wings plus a 20 mm Hispano-Suiza autocannon mounted in the engine and firing through the propeller hub. Additionally, a more simple type of fixed radiator was also employed instead of the original retractable one. As the France was defeated in June 1940 many French engineers moved on to Switzerland to finish the project. 

The first prototype flew for the first time in October 1940 and by early 1941 the type was being delivered to the Swiss Air Force's fighter squadrons. The type was manufactured throughout the entire War, until 1945, making the D.3801 one of the main Swiss fighters with 207 machines being completed. Further aircraft, a total of 17, were manufactured after the war, in 1947-1948 and delivered to the Swiss Air Force, however, but that time the World War 2 was all but over and the D.3801 was seriously obsolete. 

The D.3801 ended up serving as an advanced trainer for the Swiss Air Force and some were used as target tugs in 1959. 

Sources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morane-Saulnier_M.S.406

2. https://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=2062

3. https://www.valka.cz/topic/view/118311/CHE-EKW-D-3801

4. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters