1936-1939

 


 

The Ju-86 was, of course, developed primarily as a bomber. But in the climate of the 1930s, it was best for the Luftwaffe to have the pretense of the aircraft being a civil transport. This was basically an open secret as anyone familiar with aircraft design could see that these were not really what they were purported to be. Nonetheless, the Ju-86 was developed as a transport and as German airliners go, it was relatively successful, though not to the same degree as the company's Ju-52. One of the more interesting developments was the use of diesel engines as the main power source. These engines put out a respectable amount of power, but were somewhat unreliable, and eventually the Ju-86 switched over to air cooled reciprocating engines. These diesel powered airliners were operated by both Lufthansa and by Swissair.
Swissair ordered one Ju-86 (HB-IXI), which crashlanded within the first months of operation and was afterwards repaired by Junkers. The airline replaced it a couple of months later with another Ju-86 (HB-IXE) which was lateron modified to the Z1 standard and given a new Registration (HB-IXA). This plane also crashed due to an engine fire some months later, killing the crew. The only Junkers-type for swissair was hence a limited success for the airline...
Swissair also used the Ju-86 to operate the night mail service between Zurich and Frankfurt over a mountainous route not requiring a machine as big as the DC-2.

 

Manufacturer
Junkers Flugzeugwerke AG, Dessau (D)
Span
22.50 m
Length 
17.30 m
Height 
4.80 m
Power (HP)  
2 x 600
Cruising Speed
285 km/h
Passengers
10
Range
800 km
Area of Operation
Europa

 

HB-IXI

Junkers Ju 86 B-0

# J860008

07.05.1936

12.08.1936

delivered 01.04.1936, crashlanded 12.08.1936 near Wixhausen (D) and repaired at Junkers.

HB-IXE / HB-IXA

Junkers Ju 86 B-1 / Z11

# J860951

16.03.1937

20.07.1939

HB-IXE, delivered in March 1937, changed Registration to HB-IXA in 1937
converted to Z11 standard with BMW132
crashed 20.07.1939 at Constance due to engine fire.



HB-IXA
(notice different engine! no longer Diesel) :


 

nazi german
neutralised german
south african
model
model

 

 


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