Junkers F 13

Updated: October 2026 – Small, angular, with shiny corrugated metal and just one engine in the nose: next to modern aircraft, the Junkers F 13 looks almost like a model. Yet it stands at the beginning of everything you photograph at the airport today. In 1919 it made the world’s first all-metal airliner fly in Dessau. Here you read how the F 13 came about, how to recognize it, what is behind the Swiss replicas with a Rimowa connection and in which museums you can see originals and replicas.

What is the Junkers F 13?

The F 13 is a single-engine, cantilever low-wing aircraft of duralumin for two pilots and four passengers. Hugo Junkers had already experimented with metal aircraft during the First World War. After the war he had his chief designer Otto Reuter develop a civil airliner from it, internally designated J 13. On June 25, 1919, the prototype named “Herta” took off in Dessau, with factory pilot Emil Monz at the controls.

What was new was the combination: until then, aircraft were mostly made of wood, fabric and bracing wires, usually as biplanes. The F 13, by contrast, was entirely metal, its wing supported itself without struts, and the passengers sat in an enclosed, heated cabin. The corrugated sheet made the thin skin stiff enough to carry loads. This principle shaped Junkers aircraft for decades, up to the Junkers Ju 52.

Just a few months after the first flight, the F 13 showed what it was made of: on September 13, 1919, Monz climbed to 6,750 meters with a total of eight people on board – an altitude record for an airliner, which, however, was not officially recognized because of the restrictions on German aviation after the war.

An aircraft for the whole world

The F 13 became the first real export hit of the German aviation industry. Because the Treaty of Versailles temporarily restricted aircraft construction in Germany severely, Junkers moved parts of production and above all sales abroad. In the USA, Junkers-Larsen marketed the aircraft as the JL-6, among other things for mail flights. In the Soviet Union, examples were built in Fili near Moscow as the Ju 13, flown among others by the company Dobrolet, a predecessor of Aeroflot.

In Europe, F 13s flew with numerous young airlines, for example AB Aerotransport in Sweden and Ad Astra Aero in Switzerland. Operators in South America, Persia and Afghanistan were added. Junkers built a whole network of its own and friendly companies and used favorable leasing offers to bring its aircraft into the world. According to the literature, Junkers Luftverkehr was already operating around 60 aircraft of the type around 1923.

Version / designation	Origin	Special feature
F 13 (J 13)	Junkers, Dessau	Base version, over the years in many sub-versions with letter abbreviations
F 13 fe	Junkers, Dessau	heavier version with Junkers L 5 engine and larger wing
JL-6	Junkers-Larsen, USA	US marketing, among other things for mail flights
Ju 13	Fili near Moscow	Soviet production, among others for Dobrolet
Float and ski versions	various operators	Landing gear interchangeable depending on use

The versatility was a big advantage: the F 13 could be operated with wheels, floats or skis. Over the production period, engine power rose from around 160 hp to over 500 hp. In the mid-1920s, F 13s even flew a scheduled service as seaplanes along the Elbe between Altona and Dresden.

The F 13 and the early Lufthansa

When Deutsche Luft Hansa was formed in January 1926, Junkers Luftverkehr was absorbed into the new company, and with it a large part of the F 13 fleet. According to common accounts, Luft Hansa used up to 55 F 13s and at times served dozens of domestic German routes with them. The type remained in scheduled service well into the 1930s. The F 13 thus belongs to the founding history of today’s Lufthansa just as the Tante Ju did later. How the airline continued, you find on the page for the Lufthansa Group.

A hub of that era was Berlin-Tempelhof Airport. The history of the airfield is told in the article Tempelhof Airport. Besides the registration, many F 13s also carried names, often of birds – for example the Luft Hansa’s “Silbermöwe” (Silver Gull) or the “Schleiereule” (Barn Owl), which now stands in Stockholm.

How to recognize the Junkers F 13

In a museum or at a vintage flying day, the F 13 is a real challenge for your type knowledge – not because it would be hard to identify, but because it turns up so rarely. When you see one, three features help you.

Then there is the size: with just under 15 meters of wingspan and around 9.6 meters of length, the F 13 is smaller than many business aircraft. Anyone who has just seen a Douglas DC-3 or a Ju 52 is usually surprised by the dimensions. A broader introduction to identifying old types is provided by How to recognize vintage aircraft.

Rimowa F13: the return to the air

Almost 85 years after the end of series production, the F 13 flies again – as a faithful replica. The impetus came from 2013 from Dieter Morszeck, then head of the suitcase maker Rimowa. The connection is obvious: since 1950 Rimowa has given its aluminum suitcases ridges inspired by aviation, and the model is considered to be the Junkers corrugated metal.

The first replica was built in Switzerland by a team of specialist companies together with Ju-Air and the association of friends of historic aircraft. Because the original plans were incomplete, according to the EAA the designers laser-scanned, among other things, a surviving JL-6 in the Paris aviation museum to measure it. The result consists of around 2,600 parts and over 35,000 rivets. Under the cowling works a nine-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior with 450 hp, as the American JL-6 already knew it. Brakes, a modern tailwheel and contemporary instruments provide the safety required today.

The replica with the serial number 13-001 and the registration HB-RIM took off for the first time on September 9, 2016 in Dübendorf, and the official first flight followed on September 15, 2016 with Morszeck on board. At first Ju-Air flew guests with it. In 2015, with the permission of the Junkers family, Junkers Flugzeugwerke AG had been re-founded in Switzerland, which built further examples: the HB-RIA (13-002) and the HB-RIO (13-003). HB-RIM was for a time on the road in the USA as N13JU, including at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, and later returned to Switzerland.

Flights and sightings: the F 13 today

After the crash of the Ju-Air Ju 52 in 2018, Switzerland tightened the rules for historic aircraft significantly. Since 2022, commercial passenger flights with such aircraft have no longer been permitted there. Associations may still take their members along, however, if they joined at least 30 days before the flight. You find the background on Ju-Air on the page for the Ju 52 and in the article Junkers Ju 52: the Tante Ju.

This is exactly how the F 13 flights work today: according to an aeroTELEGRAPH report from June 2025, the association Junkers Luftverkehr offered sightseeing flights with the three replicas. The starting point is St. Gallen-Altenrhein on Lake Constance, and in summer flights from Kempten, Kirchheim unter Teck, Leverkusen and Oberschleißheim were also announced. As in the original, four guests fit in the cabin. Dates, prices and conditions change, so inform yourself directly with the association.

For spotters this means: your best chances of a flying F 13 are at Lake Constance and at the airfields named, in summer. In Altenrhein a detour to the aviation museum at Altenrhein airfield is worthwhile. Kirchheim unter Teck is home to Hahnweide, the venue of the Hahnweide vintage aircraft fly-in, and Oberschleißheim to the Deutsches Museum’s Flugwerft Schleißheim. You find more dates with historic aircraft via Airfield festivals in Germany.

Where you can see originals and replicas

Of the hundreds of F 13s built, according to the literature only five originals survive, three of them on public display. In addition there are several static replicas.

Originals. The Deutsches Museum in Munich has shown an F 13 with the historic registration D-366 since 1984, whose exact identity is not entirely clear because of a missing data plate. At the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace in Le Bourget stands another original – the site at the airport is described by the spot Musée de l’Air at Paris-Le Bourget Airport. The Tekniska museet in Stockholm shows the “Schleiereule”. The F 13 of the Budapest Transport Museum is, according to the literature, currently in storage, and at the German Museum of Technology in Berlin the wreck of an F 13 that crashed in Canada in 1933 is kept on loan.

Static replicas. A faithful replica, built between 2004 and 2015, is shown by the Hugo Junkers Technology Museum in Dessau – fittingly in the city where it all began. According to the literature, the Hannover-Laatzen Aviation Museum owns another replica. Replicas also stand in Mönchengladbach, Rechlin and in Zlín in the Czech Republic.

Photo tips for the F 13

The F 13 is small and in museums often stands between other exhibits. With a few tricks you can still get the best out of it.

How special an F 13 sighting is by comparison you can judge with Judging the rarity of a sighting – flying, it should rank among the rarest entries in almost any collection. For the Swiss registrations of the replicas, Swiss HB registrations helps you.

Conclusion

The Junkers F 13 is the ancestor of the modern airliner: entirely of metal, cantilever, with an enclosed cabin for paying guests. It flew on all continents, shaped the early Luft Hansa and laid the foundation for the Ju 52. That you can experience it today not only in a museum but, thanks to the Swiss replicas, in the sky again makes it one of the most exciting targets for vintage fans.