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The Junkers S 36 was a twin-engine
No sales resulted, and the development of new and more capable fighter aircraft negated the advantages offered by the type. However, the
Hugo Junkers homepage
* * {{Authority control 1920s German mailplanes K 37 Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1927 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft
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" ...
developed 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 that was further developed in Sweden as a multi-role military aircraft, albeit unsuccessfully, under the designation K 37. The design itself was a 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 ...
of largely conventional design, featuring twin tails and fixed, tailwheel undercarriage
Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft
An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynami ...
. Construction was metal throughout and skinned, in typical Junkers fashion, 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 ...
. The engines were mounted in nacelles on the wings, and the crew was accommodated in 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, including one in the very nose of the aircraft.
Design and development
This design lent itself readily to military applications, and the open cockpit in the nose offered an ideal position for a crewman to act as an observer, bombardier and/or nose gunner. The ''S 36''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 ...
was flown to Sweden, where it was militarised by Junkers subsidiary 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 ...
at Limhamn
Limhamn () is, in an administrative sense, the southern district of Malmö Municipality in Sweden. Before 1915, Limhamn was (briefly) a town of its own.
The population of Limhamn-Bunkeflo (including suburbs) is 31,000, of which 7,000 live in th ...
. Proposed as a fighter or 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 ...
, the K 37 could operate at altitudes unattainable by other fighters of the day, rendering it effectively immune from interception. The type was demonstrated in civil form at the "Aerial Garden Party" at Heston Aerodrome
Heston Aerodrome was an airfield located to the west of London, England, operational between 1929 and 1947. It was situated on the border of the Heston and Cranford areas of Hounslow, Middlesex. In September 1938, the British Prime Minister, Ne ...
in July 1929, and in military form as a model at the Olympia Aero Show, complete with a dummy observer with swivelling 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 ...
to demonstrate the field of fire.
No sales resulted, and the development of new and more capable fighter aircraft negated the advantages offered by the type. However, the Japanese Army Air Force
The Imperial Japanese Army Air Service (IJAAS) or Imperial Japanese Army Air Force (IJAAF; ja, 大日本帝國陸軍航空部隊, Dainippon Teikoku Rikugun Kōkūbutai, lit=Greater Japan Empire Army Air Corps) was the aviation force of the Im ...
was sufficiently interested in the type for Mitsubishi
The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries.
Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...
to purchase manufacturing rights in 1931, and AB Flygindustri also provided one or two pattern aircraft. A K 37 was operated with success during the Invasion of Manchuria and led the Army to order heavy
Heavy may refer to:
Measures
* Heavy (aeronautics), a term used by pilots and air traffic controllers to refer to aircraft capable of 300,000 lbs or more takeoff weight
* Heavy, a characterization of objects with substantial weight
* Heavy, ...
and light bomber
A light bomber is a relatively small and fast type of military bomber aircraft that was primarily employed before the 1950s. Such aircraft would typically not carry more than one ton of ordnance.
The earliest light bombers were intended to dro ...
s from Mitsubishi based on the design. These were developed as the Ki-1 and Ki-2 respectively, the former sharing little with the Junkers design other than its general configuration, but the latter featuring wings essentially the same as the K 37 fitted with extra aileron
An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...
s.
Specifications (K 37)
References
Bibliography
* *Hugo Junkers homepage
* * {{Authority control 1920s German mailplanes K 37 Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1927 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft