Herpa BEA British European Airways Junkers JU-52 “Jupiter” – G-AHOG 1/160

In 1932, exactly 90 years ago, the Junkers Ju-52/3m, the three-engine and by far the most important version of the legendary “Auntie Ju”, took off for the first time. The Lufthansa Ju-52 has been a classic and perennial favorite in the Herpa program virtually since the beginning of the Wings series (item n° 019040). Less well-known is that British European Airways also had ten Ju-52s in service from 1946 to 1948.

The UK government established BEA in 1946 to serve initially European and, from 1947, domestic routes. To do so, it first operated a motley fleet that also included ten Ju-52s acquired from the defeated Germans. Since “Junkers” sounds like “junk” in English, at BEA, the German aircraft flew under the name of “Jupiters”. They were used exclusively on domestic routes. While popular with their crews, the lack of spare parts for the BMW engines resulted in a swift end of service after two years