The Rebirth of a Canadian Junkers
Text: Petr Uzsák
Photos: Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada
Professor Hugo Junkers‘ company was a highly progressive airplanes‘ manufacturer. For example, as early as the First World War it was already mass-producing all-metal combat airplanes-at a time when wood and fabric still unquestionably dominated other aviation designs.
This article, however, focuses the post-war aviation, more precisely, a single-engine transport airplane that was operated in the harsh and inhospitable Canadian tundra. Her factory designation was Junkers F 13gle, construction number 2050, and she was registred as CF-ALX. She was built at the beginning of 1930, sold to Canada in May of that year, and registered there the same month. Her owner became the Air Land Manufacturing Company, which used her together with her sister airplane CF-AMX—for the operational tasks in support of mining activities. Given the then poorly developed infrastructure of rural Canada, it is hardly surprising that the airplane was equipped with floats, allowing it to land on many local lakes and other waterways. As of June 1930, the airplane was christened City of Prince George.
The company operated the airplane for full three years before it was sold, on May 17th, 1933, to the merchant and farmer Victor Spencer of Vancouver, Canada, who was also active in the mineral industry. Likewise the previous owner, he used her for a similar range of tasks-not for long though.
Her sudden demise came on Sunday, July 23rd 1933, about 120 kilometers north of Lake Takla, near Lake McConnell in the province of British Columbia. After takeoff, the aircraft lost altitude due to descending air currents, clipped the treetops, and subsequently made a forced landing in a rocky terrain. The pilot was William McCluskey, the flight mechanic Fred Staines, and there were two passengers on board. Fortunately, the accident claimed no lives; all four occupants were only slightly injured, but the aircraft itself was effectively a write-off. Despite the remoteness of the location, some parts of the aircraft were later salvaged.
After the accident, the wreck laid at the site for many decades virtually untouched, until in the summer of 1981 it was recovered by several enthusiasts and transported to the storage facilities of the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada (RAMWC) in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
After many years in storage, in 2006 a loan and restoration agreement was reached with the Berlin Technical Museum. This was followed by the airplane‘s transport aboard a Lufthansa MD-11 freighter from Chicago to Frankfurt am Main, from where it was transported on the ground to Berlin. The cargo airplane was flown by Captain Claus Cordes, who, incidentally, is also a pilot of the vintage Junkers airplanes such as the sport A 50 or the transport Ju 52. In addition he also flew the Lockheed Super Constellation.
After several years on display in Berlin, the Junkers wreck was transported to Hungary, where it underwent a long and demanding restoration to her original condition. This work was carried out in Héreg near Budapest, home to a well-known workshop specializing in the vintage aircraft restoration. Their work can be seen in many museums.
Following its return to Canada in September 2024, the final finishing work was completed. In order to preserve her historical authenticity, the float landing gear was reinstalled in May 2025, and in this configuration the Junkers is now on display in the RAMWC museum in Winnipeg. Unfortunately, the airplane currently lacks the engine. Regardless, she makes an extraordinary impression in the exhibition.
The Junkers F 13 left an indelible mark on the world aviation and it can be said outright to have been one of the airplanes that helped transform the commercial air transport. This was primarily due to its advanced all-metal design, operational reliability and sturdiness which also contributed to the promotion of the aviation as a whole. Her successors included, for example, the single-engine W 34 and the three-engine G 23/24, and the most famous Ju 52. In total, around 320 airframes of the “Thirteen” were produced between 1919 and 1930. Other surviving original airplanes can be found, for example, at the Air and Space Museum in Le Bourget near Paris, the Deutsches Museum in Munich, or the Transport Museum in Budapest.
In the pre-war Czechoslovakia, two examples of the “Thirteen” were in use—one with Czechoslovak registration and another with a German one. In 1932, the footwear businessman Tomáš Baťa was killed while aboard on one of these airplanes.
Modeler’s note: 1/48 scale replica of this airplane can be built from the recently released MiniArt plastic model.