It was the last of the Junkers line, but East Germany’s 152 jet airliner is best-known for being an ignominious failure. How did it become so — and why did the first prototype come to grief?
BAADE 152
ELBE FLUGZEUGWERKE GMBH
Dresden, 4 March 1959. A column of black smoke marks the beginning of the end of a dream — the dream of an aviation industry reborn in the German Democratic Republic (GDR).The second test flight of the 152 V1, the first German turbine-powered transport aircraft, had ended in catastrophe.
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