Bücker Bü 133 Jungmeister

Updated: October 2026 – A tiny biplane with a round radial engine sweeps across the field, rolls around its longitudinal axis in a fraction of a second and a moment later hangs vertically in the air. Only one person sits in the cockpit: that is very likely a Bücker Bü 133 Jungmeister. In the 1930s it was the aircraft you won aerobatic competitions with, and in Switzerland it stayed in service for over three decades. Here you will learn how the Jungmeister came about, why it is so closely tied to Altenrhein, how to tell it from the Jungmann, Tiger Moth and others, and where you can still see one today.

What is the Bücker Jungmeister?

The Jungmeister is a single-seat aerobatic biplane from the Berlin company Bücker Flugzeugbau. It came about as an offshoot of the two-seat Bü 131 Jungmann: same construction, same basic shape, but smaller, lighter to handle and with more power per kilogram. According to common accounts, Bücker took over around 40 percent of the parts from the Jungmann – the rest was tailored to the new purpose.

With a wingspan of 6.60 meters and a length of around six meters, the Jungmeister is an exceptionally small aircraft. The main version, the Bü 133C, weighs just over 400 kilograms empty and may take off at just under 600 kilograms. The Siemens-Halske Sh 14A, a seven-cylinder radial engine with around 160 hp, takes it to about 220 km/h. The Jungmeister was never meant for long distances: its strength is what happens between takeoff and landing in the tight airspace above the field.

It was designed by the Swede Anders J. Andersson, chief designer at Bücker. Company founder Carl Clemens Bücker, a former naval aviator, had previously run the company Svenska Aero in Sweden and founded his own business in Berlin-Johannisthal in 1933. In 1935 the company moved to Rangsdorf south of Berlin, where the Jungmeister made its first flights too.

Origins: from Jungmann to Jungmeister

The Jungmann first flew in April 1934 and sold quickly. For aerobatics, however, a two-seat trainer was not ideal: anyone who wanted to win competitions needed a lighter, more nimble aircraft. Bücker responded with the Jungmeister. The prototype Bü 133 V1, registered D-EVEO, took off on its first flight on August 21, 1935, with factory pilot Luise Hoffmann at the controls – she is regarded as Germany’s first female test pilot.

The prototype still had an inverted inline engine from Hirth. But the type only really caught on with the Bü 133C from 1937: it got a somewhat shorter fuselage and the Siemens radial engine under a rounded cowling. This combination shaped the Jungmeister’s look and still makes it easy to tell from its big brother today.

Soon after its first flight, the Jungmeister showed at competitions what it could do. Well-known German aerobatic pilots of the day such as Albert Falderbaum, Otto Heinrich Graf von Hagenburg and Liesel Bach flew it at competitions and flying days. From 1938 the Bü 133C was also the Luftwaffe’s standard trainer for advanced instruction in aerobatics and air combat. For flying displays, the Luftwaffe set up an aerobatic squadron of nine Jungmeisters in 1938, which performed the following year at the international flying meeting in Brussels. How formation aerobatics has developed since then is shown in the overview of Europe’s aerobatic teams.

The Swiss story: Jungmeisters from Altenrhein

Hardly any country is as closely tied to the Bücker biplanes as Switzerland. In 1936 the Swiss Air Force introduced the Jungmann and Jungmeister as trainers. It first bought a small number of aircraft in Germany and acquired the license rights at the same time. Production then took place at the Dornier works in Altenrhein on Lake Constance, the Swiss offshoot of the German manufacturer Dornier.

There are differing figures for the exact number of Swiss Jungmeisters: depending on the source, between just over 45 and just over 50 licensed builds were made at Altenrhein, and the number of imported aircraft is also given differently. In total the Swiss Air Force flew around 50 Jungmeisters. In addition there were almost 90 Jungmanns built at Altenrhein.

The Swiss Air Force used the Jungmeister for aerobatic and advanced training and kept it in service remarkably long: until the end of the 1960s. Afterward the aircraft were sold. For the vintage aircraft scene this was a stroke of luck: well-preserved, carefully maintained military aircraft came onto the market at comparatively low prices. Common accounts see exactly that as one reason why newly built Jungmeisters from that period found hardly any buyers. Many of the aircraft flying today in Europe and North America therefore have a Swiss past.

If you want to trace Swiss military aviation, the Flieger-Flab-Museum Dübendorf is the right place. The museum documents the history of the Swiss Air Force, in which the Bücker trainers were part of everyday life for decades. Whether a Jungmeister is currently on display is something you should check before your visit. At the old production site in Altenrhein, the Fliegermuseum Altenrhein operates airworthy vintage aircraft with a Swiss connection today – but according to its own fleet overview it does not have a Jungmeister. Jungmeisters registered in Switzerland today carry an HB registration; how the system works is explained in the article on Swiss HB registrations.

Licensed builds, exports and replicas

Besides Switzerland, Spain also built the Jungmeister: from 1940 to 1942 CASA produced around 25 aircraft as the CASA 1.133 for the Spanish Air Force. They flew with Hirth engines at first and later received Siemens radial engines. In addition there were Bü 133Cs built in Germany that Spain already owned.

The Jungmeister was exported to around a dozen countries. Military users included Yugoslavia, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and South Africa; Lithuania acquired a few shortly before the war. The Bücker company itself did not survive the Second World War: after 1945 the business was shut down, and the Rangsdorf plant was dismantled by the Soviet occupation authorities.

The Jungmeister did not disappear entirely, though. In the late 1960s a very few new builds were made in Germany once more – depending on the source at Wolf Hirth in Nabern or at Bitz in Augsburg. Production numbers stayed in the single digits – also because the inexpensive ex-Swiss aircraft came onto the market at the same time. Later a few more individual examples were completed, for instance in Austria and France, and in Poland the SSH T-133 was created, a modern replica with a radial engine of which only one prototype was built.

Version	Notable feature
Bü 133A	prototype with Hirth inline engine
Bü 133C	main version from 1937, shorter fuselage, Siemens radial engine Sh 14A
Bü 133D	improved series version, also with a radial engine
Dornier licensed build	production at Altenrhein for the Swiss Air Force
CASA 1.133	Spanish licensed production, at first with Hirth engine
SSH T-133	Polish replica, only one prototype

In aerobatics: at the top for a long time

What makes the Jungmeister special is its agility. Short wings, little mass and an engine that was powerful for its time add up to an aircraft that rolls very quickly and flies tight maneuvers. In the 1930s the type won numerous international aerobatic competitions, and it stayed competitive for a surprisingly long time: as late as the 1960s pilots entered international championships with the Jungmeister.

It also had a following in the USA. The aerobatic pilot Bevo Howard flew a red-and-white checkered Jungmeister at airshows; he was killed in the aircraft in 1971. The aircraft was afterward rebuilt as a non-flying exhibit and is part of the collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum.

Today, monoplanes built specifically for competition such as the Extra EA-300 dominate aerobatic sport. But if you see both types one after the other in the air, you quickly recognize where the origins lie: the Jungmeister already shows the fast rolls and hard changes of direction that shape modern aerobatics. Trainers such as the Pilatus PC-7, with which the Swiss Air Force trains today, also stand in this tradition of aerobatic instruction.

How to recognize the Jungmeister

At vintage fly-ins, several small biplanes often stand side by side. Four observations will get you to the Jungmeister with confidence.

In the end the registration confirms the identification. Some Jungmeisters wear a historic livery with an old military marking, in which case the civil registration appears smaller on the fuselage or tail. Examples registered in Germany carry a registration with D-E as light single-engine aircraft; more on that in the article on German aircraft registrations. General identification tips for vintage aircraft are provided by the guide How to recognize vintage aircraft in the sky.

Jungmeister, Jungmann, Tiger Moth or Stearman?

The finder helps when several historic biplanes stand in front of you at once.

Where to see airworthy Jungmeisters

The Jungmeister is much rarer than the Tiger Moth or the Jungmann. There is no reliable figure for airworthy examples; there are only a few left, spread across private owners in Europe and North America. Accordingly, you have to plan your encounters.

Place	What to expect	Note
Vintage fly-in Hahnweide	Large gathering of historic aircraft in Baden-Württemberg, Bücker biplanes are classic guests there	participant lists reveal whether a Jungmeister is attending
Flieger-Flab-Museum Dübendorf	History of the Swiss Air Force, in which the Jungmeister served until the end of the 1960s	museum visit; check exhibits beforehand
Verkehrshaus Luzern	Swiss transport and aviation history	pairs well with Dübendorf
Airfield festivals in Germany	Private vintage aircraft as guests among modern general aviation	overview in the article Airfield festivals in Germany
IWM Duxford and Old Warden	British airshows with lively vintage flying	guest aircraft change from show to show

How to find smaller airfields with vintage flying and how to behave properly there is covered in the article Spotting general aviation.

Photo tips for the Jungmeister

The Jungmeister is small, quick in its maneuvers and flies close to the audience – a challenge, but a rewarding subject.

You can read more about technique at flying displays in the article Photographing airshows. And because the Jungmeister is so rare, it is worth a look at How rare is my sighting?.

Conclusion

The Bücker Jungmeister is a small aircraft with a big history: designed in Berlin, built in series at Altenrhein, flown for decades by the Swiss Air Force and at home in aerobatic competitions into the 1960s. Today it is rare, but not gone – above all thanks to the many former Swiss aircraft that passed into private hands.