Junkers A50 Junior

The Junkers A50 Junior is a German all-metal sports plane first produced by Junkers in 1929. A modernized version, produced since 2022 by Junkers Aircraft Works, features updated materials, safety systems, and avionics. Designed by Hermann Pohlmann during the late 1920s, it incorporated the all-metal construction and various other principles practiced on Junkers' larger aircraft of the era. The A50 had a streamlined fuselage composed of corrugated duralumin, a low-mounted cantilever wing, and proportionally large flight control surfaces. It could be outfitted with conventional landing gear, skis or floats to suit a variety of operational conditions; the aircraft was reportedly suitable for use in the tropics or near-Arctic conditions as well as from austere airstrips. It was typically powered by a single Armstrong Siddeley Genet II engine, although other powerplants could also be fitted. In 1930, a floatplane variant of the Junkers A50 Junior set eight Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) world records for altitude, distance, and average speed. In 1931, German aviator Marga von Etzdorf became the first woman to fly solo from Berlin to Tokyo, completing the journey in a Junkers A50 Junior.