There is hardly any civil or military aircraft that is better known than the Junkers Ju 52. In the 1930s it was the essence of safe air travel and the embodiment of reliability. To begin with - to suit the cargo carriers - it was a single-engine aircraft. But airlines such as Lufthansa, for the safety of their passengers, preferred a three-engine variant, which in addition to robustness and short take-off and landing distances, offered minimum maintenance and low costs. On 7th March 1932, the first 3-engine aircraft took off on its maiden flight. This series used BMW 132A radial engines with a capacity of 660 hp. This gave the Ju 52 maximum speeds between 250 and 290 km/h.