The Junkers A 32 was a

mail plane A mail plane is an aircraft used for carrying mail. Aircraft that were purely mail planes existed almost exclusively prior to World War II. Because early aircraft were too underpowered to carry cargoes, and too costly to run any "economy class" ...

built in

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

form in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in the late 1920s, and later developed as a prototype

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...

under the designation K 39. The design was a conventional low-wing

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

with fixed tailskid undercarriage. Construction was metal throughout, with corrugated

duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of '' Dürener'' and ''aluminium''. Its use as a tra ...

skin. Three open

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

s were provided in tandem; the third seat intended from the outset to accommodate a tail gunner for a military version of the aircraft. In fact, the militarised version developed in Sweden by

AB Flygindustri AB Flygindustri was a Swedish aircraft manufacturer during the interwar period from 1924 to 1935. The company was founded by Carl and Adrian Florman and based in Malmö, Sweden AB Flygindustri was an offshoot of AB Aerotransport AB Aerotranspo ...

featured a fourth crew position as well, for a bombardier. This version featured twin

machine gun A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) a ...

s built into the engine

cowling A cowling is the removable covering of a vehicle's engine, most often found on automobiles, motorcycles, airplanes, and on outboard boat motors. On airplanes, cowlings are used to reduce drag and to cool the engine. On boats, cowlings are a cove ...

, and a trainable machine gun for the tail gunner. Only two A 32s were built, and the first prototype was destroyed in a crash on 2 November 1927 that killed Junkers engineer

Karl Plauth Leutnant Karl Plauth was a German World War I flying ace credited with 17 aerial victories. He would crash a Junkers A 32 to his death on a test flight. Biography See also Aerial victory standards of World War I Karl Plauth was born on 27 August ...

. The sole K 39 constructed may have been modified from the second prototype. No sales of either the civil or military version ensued.

Specifications (K 39)

References

*
The Hugo Junkers Homepage

{{Junkers aircraft 1920s German mailplanes A 32 Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1926