BAADE IDEA

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

The first 152 prior to its initial flight on 4 December 1958, with ground crew, pressmen and, presumably, state security operatives in attendance at Dresden-Klotzsche airport.
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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