Baade 152

Baade 152
Roll-out of "Baade 152" in Dresden on 30 April 1958
Role Airliner
Manufacturer VEB Flugzeugwerke Dresden
First flight 4 December 1958
Retired 1961
Status Never entered service; retired
Primary user Intended to be Interflug
Number built 2 flight prototypes + 1 completed that never flew. Several abandoned while under construction.
Developed from OKB-1 150

The Baade 152 also known as Dresden 152, VL-DDR 152 or simply 152 was the first German jetliner. It was built and tested in Dresden (East Germany) between 1956 and 1961, but failed to enter service. The "152" represents the final development in the Junkers aircraft family which ended with the "development planes" (Entwicklungsflugzeug - EF).

Design and development

Sketch of the two prototype variants of the 152 that flew between 1958 and 1961
Sketch of the 152 as it would have appeared in service with Interflug
Toy of the 152 in the livery of the East German Deutsche Lufthansa

The aircraft was named after the designer of the plane, Brunolf Baade. Only three airworthy prototypes were built; two of them were flown on three flights. The first prototype V1/I (DM-ZYA) was derived from the Samoljot 150 or Alekseyev 150 jet bomber designed by former Junkers engineers in the Soviet Union. It included a tandem landing gear and glazed nose for the navigator, which was a common feature in many Eastern Bloc aircraft. The 152's landing gear was unusual for a passenger plane in that the main gear was housed along the centerline of the fuselage with outrigger wheels in the wing-tips (similar to the more well-known Boeing B-47). The tail of the airplane was tested on a propeller driven aircraft, the Soviet Il-14, which was built under license in East Germany.

The maiden flight of this aircraft took place 4 December 1958 and lasted 35 minutes. The aircraft was lost on its second flight in a crash at Ottendorf-Okrilla on 4 March 1959, killing the entire crew. The reasons for the crash were never fully investigated and the results of the limited investigation were only made public in 1990.[1]

Test flights continued with the second prototype V4/II (DM-ZYB). This second prototype had a different landing gear configuration, with an unusual configuration of the main landing gear sharing the same pylon as the engines. This aircraft also had abandoned the glazed nose for the navigator.

The third prototype, V5/II (DM-ZYC), served only ground tests.

The flight testing came to an abrupt end after only three flights, when a serious malfunction in the fuel tanks, interrupting sufficient fuel supply during steep descent, was discovered. The question of whether this design flaw contributed to the crash of the first prototype is still unanswered. There were still about 20 aircraft in production for the East German state airline Deutsche Lufthansa until mid-1961. At this time, the East German government stopped all aeronautical industry activities, as the Soviet Union which promoted its own design, the Tu-124, did not want to buy any of these aircraft or support any further development.

All examples of the aircraft were scrapped, though currently there is a restoration of the abandoned 152/II #011 fuselage, which was begun in 1995 at EADS EFW (Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH) in Dresden, which is the direct successor of VEB Flugzeugwerke Dresden.

The Industriewerke Ludwigsfelde (IWL) near Berlin made the Pirna 014 engines, and was left with 30 completed engines after the project was cancelled.[2] These were later used to power minesweepers for the Volksmarine.[2]

Chronology

  • 12 October 1956 – First test run of jet engine Pirna 014
  • March 1958 – First presentation of airplane 152 and jet engine Pirna 014 at the Leipzig Spring Fair
  • 30 April 1958 – Roll out of first 152/I V1 prototype plane without engines
  • 4 December 1958 – First flight of prototype 152/I V1 for 35 minutes with jet engines Tumansky RD-9
  • 4 March 1959 – Second flight of prototype 152/I V1 for 55 minutes. Plane crashed after rapid descent killing the crew of four.
  • 9 September 1959 – Testing of Pirna 014 jet engines on test plane Ilyushin Il-28R
  • 30 July 1960 – Start of ground testing for 152/II V4 plane
  • 26 August 1960 – First flight of prototype 152/II V4 for 22 minutes with Pirna 014
  • 4 September 1960 – Second flight of prototype 152/II V4 for 20 minutes
  • 7 September 1960 – Roll out of the third prototype 152/II V5
  • 7 September 1960 – Serious fuel system malfunctions during ground tests resulting in grounding both the 152/IIs
  • December 1960 – End of ground testing of prototype 152/II V4
  • March 1961 – End of Pirna 014 jet engine production
  • 20 June 1961 – Last flight of Pirna 014 jet engine on test plane IL-28R
  • Mid-1961 – Scrapping of all produced 152 planes

Specifications (152/II V4)

Data from 152 Homepage[3]

General characteristics

  • Crew: 6
  • Capacity: 48/57/72 (depending on configuration)
  • Length: 31.4 m (103 ft)
  • Wingspan: 26.3 m (86.3 ft)
  • Height: 9.00 m (29.5 ft)
  • Wing area: 136 m² (1,463 sq. ft)
  • Empty weight: 28,580 kg (63,008 lbs.)
  • Max. takeoff weight: 46,500 kg (102,514 lbs)
  • Powerplant: 4 × Pirna 014 turbojet, 30.9 kN (6,946.5 lbs) each

Performance

See also

Related development

Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era

Related lists

References

  1. ↑ "The Rise and Fall of the East German Aircraft Industry". Air & Space Magazine. Archived from the original on 2006-01-29. Retrieved 2006-07-06.
  2. 1 2 Kirchberg, Peter (2000). Plaste Blech und Planwirtschaft — Die Geschichte des Automobilbaus in der DDR (in German). Berlin: Nicolaische Verlagsbuchhandlung Beuermann GmbH. p. 439. ISBN 3-87584-027-5.
  3. ↑ "152 Homepage". 152 Homepage. Retrieved 2006-07-05.
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