A very interesting photo as D-AKYI is not a known registration. No information about date and place but the Nazi war flag flown here dates from November 1935. The Ju 52s seem to be Ju 52/3mg3e bomber/transport planes. Our hunch is that this picture may show aircraft departing to Spain to help Franco airlift his troops from Morocco to start the Civil War in July 1936. Few details are known about this airlift. Ju 52s presumably reached Spain via Fascist Italy, but would have needed to overfly Austria which still existed. This might explain improvised civilian registrations. Note that the D prefix is not entirely certain. Photo from: Life

Controls of a bygone era - it took muscles to fly Auntie Ju and her successor. On the pedestal are the engine controls and fuel tank selector. The knobs on the right control the oil coolers and compressed air. The levers above the pedals are for rudder trim. Unfortunately, the glass on most indicators has become very weathered while no placards have yet been uncovered from protective painting.

Standing next to the mid-fuselage entry door, looking forward. The tube frames along the sides allowed for flexible fitting of equipment, including the folding seats seen here. A radio operator station would be positioned at the starboard bulkhead next to the cockpit entrance. Along the ceiling runs the parachute static line cable.

Transported by road to Essen by the WDL Oldtimer Freunde society in April 2021, after a similar foundation had to discontinue her restoration project. Built in 1945 and delivered to the Armee de l'Air where she served the CEV among other units. To the FA Portuguesa in November 1960, withdrawn from use as 6320 in 1967 and stored in Alverca. Flown to Germany by C-160 in 1975 and preserved at the LTG63 barracks, Hohn, as 1Z-IK until 2019. Then spent the next two years in Mönchengladbach, being largely restored before being passed on again. On display without any identification marks.

Ex D-AVIU. Later SE-BUE and VH-BUU. Photo from: U.A. Saarinen / Finnish Heritage Agency

To OH-LAK in 1939. Crashed on approach to Hyvinkää in October 1945. Photo from: J. Kirchner / Finnish Heritage Agency

First flown in January 1934. To D-ALAS. To Luftwaffe in 1939, fate unknown. Photo from: Lufthansa

Photo from: Alexander Savialoff / Finnish Heritage Agency

Photo by: Aarne Pietinen / Finnish Heritage Agency

This Tante Ju was one of 12 that was tasked with transporting a unit of mountain artillery to reinforce General Dietl's force at Narvik in the early days of the German offensive in Norway. The weather around Narvik was bad with fog and low clouds, so the aircraft landed on the frozen Lake Hartvikvatn. A sudden thaw made conditions extremely difficult and only one aircraft managed to take off. The remainder sank in the lake when the ice thawed. 6657 was salvaged in 1983 and transported to the RNoAF Museum's collection at Gardermoen where it was painstakingly restored and put on display. Here seen in open air storage prior to restoration.

Delivered to the Swiss Air Force as A-703 in 1939. To Ju-Air as HB-HOP in 1982. Grounded at Dubendorf in 2018 following the crash of HB-HOT.

Photo from: Alexander Savialoff / Finnish Heritage Agency

Photo by: Aarne Pietinen. / Finnish Heritage Agency

Delivered to the Spanish Air Force as T.2-142 in 1948. Later T.2B-142. Sold as N9012N in 1978. Arrived in the UK in 1979. Flown to Dublin in 1982 and stored. Preserved at Ugglarp, Sweden from 1992.

Zürich's airport at Dübendorf in 1935, with the tail of Swissair's first DC-2, HB-ITI, on the left. D-AXUT built in 1934. To Iberia in 1938 as M-CABO. Later EC-AAG, crashed in Morocco in 1944. Ju 52 D-ADEF Adolf Schirmer (c/n 4070) built in 1935. Used by Nazi bigwig Julius Streicher for some time. To Luftwaffe in August 1939. Blown up by German troops in Ukraine in 1944, then administratively bought from DLH for one Reichsmark. Fokker F.VIIb-3m I-AAXZ built by Meridionali in Naples for ALI in 1931. Crashed in 1936, presumably near Turin on 15 April. Photo from: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich