Deutsche Luft Hansa @·AIRCRAFTUBE

  • Ju-52 - Belgrade 1941 Ju-52 - Belgrade 1941
    Ju-52 - Belgrade 1941
  • Junkers F.13<br>Stamp - 1976 Junkers F.13<br>Stamp - 1976
    Junkers F.13
    Stamp - 1976
  • Junkers F-24 Junkers F-24
    Junkers F-24
  • Berlin-Tempelhof<br>Wartebereich Berlin-Tempelhof<br>Wartebereich
    Berlin-Tempelhof
    Wartebereich
  • Junkers<br>Ju-90 Junkers<br>Ju-90
    Junkers
    Ju-90
  • Heinkel<br>He 70D Heinkel<br>He 70D
    Heinkel
    He 70D
  • Dornier Do J Wal Dornier Do J Wal
    Dornier Do J Wal
  • Dornier Superwal Dornier Superwal
    Dornier Superwal
  • Junkers G.38 Junkers G.38
    Junkers G.38
  • Albatros<br>L 73<br>Stettin<br>(1927) Albatros<br>L 73<br>Stettin<br>(1927)
    Albatros
    L 73
    Stettin
    (1927)
  • Lufthansa Boeing 247 Lufthansa Boeing 247
    Lufthansa Boeing 247

Deutsche Luft Hansa

Deutsche Luft Hansa A.G. (from 1933 styled as Deutsche Lufthansa and also known as Luft Hansa, Lufthansa, or DLH) was a German airline, serving as flag carrier of the country during the later years of the Weimar Republic and throughout the Third Reich.

Even though it was its forerunner, there is no legal connection to still operating Lufthansa, which was founded in 1953.

1920s

Deutsche Luft Hansa was founded on 6 January 1926 in Berlin. The name of the company was a composite of "Deutsche Luft" ("German Air" in German), and "Hansa" (after the Hanseatic League, a powerful medieval trading group). The airline was created by a merger between Deutscher Aero Lloyd (an airline formed in 1923 as a co-operation between the shipping companies Norddeutscher Lloyd and Hamburg America Line) and Junkers Luftverkehr, the in-house airline of Junkers. This action was taken due to an initiative of the German government which hoped to reduce the amount of financial support it provided to the two partly state-owned airlines, which were both plagued by heavy debts at that time.

The foundation of the airline coincided with the lifting of the restrictions of commercial air operations that had been imposed upon Germany by the Treaty of Versailles. This allowed the route network to be quickly expanded to cover the major European cities. The initial fleet consisted of 162 aircraft, nearly all of them outdated World War I types, and the company had 1,527 staff. The most important airfield for DLH was Berlin Tempelhof. From there a Fokker F.II took off on 6 April 1926 for the first scheduled flight to Zürich via Halle, Erfurt and Stuttgart. In the same year, Deutsche Luft Hansa acquired a stake in Deruluft, a joint German-Soviet airline, and launched non-stop flights from Berlin to Moscow, which was then regarded as an exceptionally long distance. Shortly after that flights to Paris were commenced. Deutsche Luft Hansa was one of the first airlines to operate night flights, the first of which connected Berlin with Königsberg using Junkers G 24 aircraft. This route proved so successful that the night train connection was discontinued some years later. During its first year, the airline operated more than 6 million flight kilometres, transporting a total of 56,268 passengers and 560 tons of freight and post.

Over the following years, the domestic network grew to cover all the important cities and towns of Germany. More international routes were added through co-operation agreements. With the newly founded Iberia in Spain its the longest scheduled route was 2,100 kilometres from Berlin to Madrid (though with several stopovers). The establishment of Syndicato Condor in Brazil served the airline's interests in South America where there were important German minorities at that time. The first East-West crossing of the Atlantic Ocean (from Baldonnel Aerodrome in Ireland to Greenly Island, Canada) was made by the Luft Hansa pilots Hermann Köhl and Ehrenfried Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld and the Irish pilot James Fitzmaurice using the Junkers W 33 aircraft Bremen in April 1928. The airline launched scheduled multi-leg flights to Tokyo. A Heinkel HE 12 aircraft was launched (by catapult) off the NDL liner Bremen during her maiden voyage crossing the Atlantic in 1929, shortening the mail delivery time between Europe and North America.

1930s

Even though the early years of the decade saw a difficult financial situation due to the Great Depression, Deutsche Luft Hansa further expanded its international route network in South America, and launched scheduled flights from Germany to the Middle East. Politically, the company leaders were linked to the rising Nazi Party; an aircraft was made available to Adolf Hitler for his campaign for the 1932 presidential election free of any charge. Erhard Milch, who had served as head of the airline since 1926, became a high-ranking official at the Aviation Ministry when Hitler came to power in 1933.

A key interest of Deutsche Luft Hansa at that time was the reduction of mail delivery times. In 1930, the Eurasia Corporation was established as a joint-venture with the Chinese transport ministry, granting Luft Hansa a monopoly position for mail transport between Germany and China, as well as access to the Chinese market. To this end, the Shanghai-Nanjing-Beijing route was launched in the following year using Junkers W 34 specially deployed there. A record was set in 1930 when the mail route from Vienna to Istanbul (with stopovers in Budapest, Belgrad and Sofia) was completed in only 24 hours. By comparison, the first transatlantic passenger flight by the airline (from Warnemünde to New York City using a Dornier Wal flying boat) took roughly one week.

After several years of testing, the first scheduled postal route between Europe and South America was inaugurated in 1934. For this purpose, catapult-launched Wal flying boats were used. These were replaced by the Dornier Do 18 in 1936 making operations in non-visual conditions possible. The European network saw the introduction of the Junkers G.38 (at that time the largest passenger aircraft in the world) on the Berlin-London route via Amsterdam, as well as the Junkers Ju 52/3m and Heinkel He 70, which allowed for faster air travel. This was promoted by so-called "Blitz Services" (German: Blitzstrecken) between Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne and Frankfurt. In 1935, the first aircraft not manufactured in Germany were introduced into the Luft Hansa fleet: two Boeing 247s and one Douglas DC-2.

The grip on the domestic South American markets was further tightened in 1937, when the Sociedad Ecuatoriana de Transportes Aéreos (SEDTA) and Lufthansa Perú were founded as Luft Hansa co-operations in Ecuador and Peru respectively, operating Junkers W 34 aircraft. The Middle Eastern network was expanded with the launch of the Berlin-Baghdad-Tehran route in the same year. In 1938 the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 long range aircraft was introduced making it possible to fly non-stop between Berlin and New York and from Berlin to Tokyo with only one intermediate stopover. This last year prior to the outbreak of World War II turned out to be the most successful one in the history of the airline, with 19.3 million flight kilometres on the scheduled European routes and a total of 254,713 passengers and 5,288 tons of mail transported.

On 1 April 1939, Deutsche Luft Hansa launched scheduled transatlantic flights between Port Natal, South Africa and Santiago de Chile using Fw 200 aircraft, a route which had previously been operated by Syndicato Condor. With Bangkok, Hanoi and Taipeh, further Asian destinations were added to the route network.

During the 1930s, Luft Hansa aircraft had also been deployed on a number of experimental and survey missions, most notably for developing the best airborne crossing of the South Atlantic, and during the Third German Antarctica Expedition in 1938-39, when two Dornier Wal aircraft performed a photographic survey of 350,000 square kilometres, an area which became known as New Swabia.

During World War II

With the outbreak of the war on 1 September 1939 all civilian flight operation of Luft Hansa came to an end, and the aircraft fleet came under command of the Luftwaffe, along with most staff as well as maintenance and production facilities. There were still scheduled passenger flights within Germany and to occupied or neutral countries, but bookings were restricted and served the demands of the warfare. During the later years of the war, most passenger aircraft were converted to military freighters.

The Luft Hansa co-operations in foreign countries were gradually dismantled: Deruluft ceased to exist in March 1940, and by November of that year, the Eurasia Corporation had to be shut down following an intervention by the Chinese government. Syndicato Condor was nationalized and renamed Cruzeiro do Sul in 1943, in an attempt to erase its German roots.

The last scheduled flight of Deutsche Luft Hansa from Berlin to Munich took place on 21 April 1945, but the aircraft crashed shortly before the planned arrival. Another (non-scheduled) flight was performed the next day, from Berlin to Warnemünde, which marked the end of flight operations. Following the surrender of Germany and the ensuing Allied occupation of Germany, all aircraft in the country were seized and Deutsche Luft Hansa was dissolved. The remaining assets were liquidated on 1 January 1951.

Legacy

Lufthansa, today's German flag carrier, acquired the name and logo of the 1926-1945 airline upon its foundation in 1953 and considers the former airline to be part of its history, even though there is no legal link between the two companies. Between 1955 and 1963, the newly-founded East German national airline operated under the same name but, having lost a lawsuit with the West German company, it was liquidated and replaced by Interflug.

Route network - European passenger flights

From 1926 until the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Deutsche Luft Hansa built up an extensive network centred on its base at Berlin Tempelhof Airport covering many German cities and towns , as well as the major European cities. There were early interline agreements which granted Luft Hansa passengers access to the flight network of leading European airlines of that time and vice versa. The agreements were with air lines including Aerotransport, Ad Astra Aero, Adria Aerolloyd, Aero Oy, Air Union, Balair, CIDNA, CSA, DDL, Imperial Airways, KLM, Lignes Aeriennes Latécoère, LOT, ÖLAG, Malert, SABENA, SANA, SGTA, and Ukrvozdukhput, as well as Syndicato Condor from Brazil and SCADTA from Colombia.

Deutsche Luft Hansa fleet history

Aircraft Introduced Retired Notes
Arado V I 1929 1929 1 only, cargo, lost in crash
BFW M.20 1929 1943 14
Blohm & Voss Ha 139 1938 1940 cargo floatplane
Blohm & Voss BV 142 1939 1940 cargo
Boeing 247 1935
Dornier Do 18 1937 1939 cargo flying boat
Dornier Do R 1928 1932 flying boat
Dornier Komet III 1926
Dornier Wal 1926 1940 cargo flying boat
Douglas DC-2 1935
Douglas DC-3 1940 1944
Focke-Wulf A 32 1934 from NOBA
Focke-Wulf A 33 1937 1 only
Focke-Wulf A 38
Focke-Wulf Fw 200 1938 1945
Fokker-Grulich F.III 1926 1935
Heinkel He 12 1929 cargo
Heinkel He 58 1930 cargo
Heinkel He 70 1934 1938 cargo
Heinkel He 116 1938 cargo
Junkers F 13 1926 1938
Junkers G 24 1926 1938
Junkers G 31 1928 1936 8 aircraft
Junkers G.38 1931 2 only, one written off after crash in 1936.
Junkers Ju 46 1933 1939 cargo
Junkers Ju 52 1932 1945
Junkers Ju 60 1934 1940
Junkers Ju 90 1938 1940
Junkers W 33 Junkers W34 cargo 1928
Rohrbach Ro VIII 1931
Rumpler C1/5A2 1926
Udet U-11 1926 1929 1 only

Accidents and incidents

1920s

  • On 22 April 1927, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Fokker FG-3 (registered D-729) crashed at Floh due to engine failure, killing the pilot and passenger.
  • On 27 July 1927, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers F 13 (registered D-206) crashed at Amoneburg after attempting a forced landing due to engine failure, killing all five on board.
  • On 23 September 1927, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Dornier Merkur (registered D-585) crashed at Schleiz en route to Munich from Berlin after a wing separated in flight, killing all six on board.
  • On 26 May 1928, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers F 13 (registered D-583) crashed at Radevormwald due to pilot error, killing three of five on board.
  • On 26 September 1928, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Fokker FG-3 (registered D-180) crashed at Heroldbach due to engine failure, killing all three on board.
  • On 1 December 1928, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers G 31 (registered D-1473, named Rhineland) crashed at Letzlingen in a snowstorm, killing three of four on board, including pilot Heinrich Doerr.
  • On 6 November 1929, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers G 31 (registration D-903, named Oberschlesien) en route from Croydon to Schipol crashed in thick fog at Godstone, Surrey, United Kingdom, resulting in the deaths of seven of the eight people on board.
  • On 19 December 1929, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Arado V I (registered D-1594, named Tenerife) force-landed 40 mi from Berlin, killing two of three on board.

1930s

  • On 7 July 1930, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Dornier Wal (registered D-864) force-landed in a storm in the Atlantic off Bornholm, Denmark enroute from Stettin to Norway due to engine failure; the aircraft was capsized by a wave while under tow three hours later; five of eight on board died.
  • On 6 October 1930, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Messerschmitt M 20 (registered D-1930) struck a hill near Dresden en route to Vienna from Berlin, killing all eight on board.
  • On 14 April 1931, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Messerschmitt M 20 (registered D-1928) broke apart in mid-air and crashed near Letschen, killing two of three crew; all seven passengers survived.
  • On 13 June 1931, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Dornier Merkur (registered D-1455) crashed at Saarbrucken after a loss of control caused by engine failure, killing all four on board.
  • On 29 July 1932, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52 (registration D-2201, named Oswald Boelke) collided in mid-air over Munich with a DVS Udet U 12a (registration D-1296).
  • On 29 October 1932, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers W 33 (registered D-2017, named Marmara) was on a freight flight from Croydon Airport to Cologne when it crashed off the Kent coast.
  • On 2 November 1932, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers F 13 (registration D-724) crashed in mountainous terrain near Echterpfuhl after a wing separated, killing all five on board.
  • On 11 December 1933, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Focke-Wulf A 17 (registration D-1403) crashed on landing at Hamburg after striking an obstacle, killing six of ten on board.
  • On 24 December 1935, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Heinkel He 70 (registration D-UVOR) crashed at Breslau due to pilot error, killing all three on board.
  • On 15 February 1936, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Dornier Wal (registered D-ADYS) disappeared over the South Atlantic with four on board.
  • On 13 June 1936, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 160 (registered D-UPYM) crashed at Hannover due to engine failure, killing one of six on board.
  • On 26 July 1936, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers G.38 (registered D-AZUR, formerly D-2000) crashed at Dessau due to mechanical failure during a test flight; the pilot survived, but the aircraft was written off.
  • On 1 November 1936, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52 (registered D-APOO, named Heinrich Kroll) crashed into mountains near Tabarz while en route to Erfurt from Frankfurt, killing 11 of 15 on board.
  • On 17 November 1936, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52 (registered D-ASUI, named Hans Berr) crashed into a mountain near Lauf an der Pegnitz while on approach to Nurnburg-Marienburg Airport on a Leipzig-Marienburg passenger service, killing four of 16 on board. The pilot became disorientated in heavy snow and poor visibility.
  • On 20 May 1937, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Heinkel He 70 (registered D-UXUV) crashed on takeoff from Stuttgart, killing all four on board.
  • On 26 November 1937, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52 (registered D-AGAV, named Emil Schäfer) crashed in fog into a hangar on takeoff at Croydon Airport, killing all three on board.
  • On 4 January 1938, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52 (registered D-ABUR, named Charles Haar) crashed in a snowstorm at Frankfurt en route from Milan due to wing icing, killing all six on board.
  • On 1 October 1938, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52 (registered D-AVAB) crashed into a mountain near Graubünden en route to Milan from Frankfurt, killing all 13 on board. A postal bag from the aircraft was found in a glacier in 1952.
  • On 26 November 1938, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 90 (registered D-AIVI, named Pruessen) struck a palm tree and crashed at Bathurst (now Banjul), Gambia after double engine failure during take-off while on a tropical trial flight, killing 12 of 15 on board.

1940s

  • On 9 August 1940, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Douglas DC-2 (registered D-AIAV) crashed near Lämershagen en route to Hannover due to pilot error, killing 2 of 13 on board.
  • On 8 November 1940, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 90 (registered D-AVMF, named Brandenburg) crashed at Schönteichen en route to Budapest from Berlin due to tail icing, killing all 6 crew and 23 passengers on board.
  • On 1 March 1941, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52 floatplane (registered D-AQUB) crashed on landing in Hommelvik Bay off Trondheim due to waves and later sank. Three of 12 on board drowned.
  • On 15 January 1944, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52 (registered D-ADQW, named Harry Rother) crashed at Belgrade, Serbia due to pilot error, killing all five on board.
  • On 21 February 1944, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52 (registered D-AWAS, named Joachim Blankenburg) went missing off Eretria, Greece with 16 on board; the wreckage was never found.
  • On 17 April 1944, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52 (registration D-AOCA) was shot down during an Allied fighter sweep and crashed near Belgrade, killing three of five on board. The aircraft was one of two that were shot down.
  • On 21 April 1944, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Douglas DC-3 (registration D-AAIG) crashed near Fredrikstad, Norway after a signal flare started a fire on board, killing nine of 20 on board.
  • On 9 August 1944, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 90 (registration D-AURE, named Bayern) burned out on the ground at Stuttgart during an Allied bombing raid, there were no casualties as no one was on board.
  • On 2 September 1944, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52 (registration D-AUAW, named Gerhard Amann) was shot down over Belgrade, killing all five on board.
  • During the war, on 27 September 1944 at 20:30 local time, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Focke-Wulf Fw 200 (registered D-AMHL) was shot down by a Bristol Beaufighter near Dijon. The aircraft had been on a scheduled passenger flight from Stuttgart to Barcelona with five passengers and four crew members on board, all of which were killed.
  • On 16 October 1944, Deutsche Luft Hansa Flight 7, a Junkers Ju 52 (registered D-ADQU, named Hermann Stache), crashed into a mountain in Flatdal, Seljord, Norway in poor visibility conditions, killing all 15 people on board, including discharged Frontkämpfer Kjell Marthinsen, son of Nazi police general Karl Marthinsen.
  • On 17 October 1944, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52 (registration D-ASHE, named Friedrich Dahmen) was attacked by British fighters and force-landed at Komitat Komorn, Hungary, killing one of nine on board.
  • On 29 November 1944 at 10:25 local time, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Focke-Wulf Fw 200 (registered D-ARHW) was accidentally shot down by a German "patrol boat" off the Swedish coast during a flight from Berlin to Stockholm, killing the six passengers and four crew members on board.
  • On 20 April 1945, during the Battle of Berlin, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Junkers Ju 52 (registered D-ANAJ) was shot down by Soviet fighters while on a Berlin-Munich-Prague evacuation flight, killing 3 crew and 15 passengers on board, including film director Hans Steinhoff. Two passengers survived.
  • On 21 April 1945, during the Battle of Berlin, a Deutsche Luft Hansa Focke-Wulf Fw 200 (registered D-ASHH, Hessen) escaped from Berlin for a flight to Munich, but crashed near Obertraubling in Bavaria, killing the sixteen passengers and five crew members. The loss was the worst accident involving an aircraft of that type and also for the airline.

— — — = = — — —

This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Deutsche Luft Hansa of Wikipedia ( authors )
Deutsche Luft Hansa : Your comments on this subject
Powered by Disqus
Top
Legal Credits FAQ Help Site Map

Terms of use for the services available on this site

By using this Website, Users agree to the following terms of use and rules :

Definitions

  • Webmaster : Head Administrator with all authority over the management and development of the Website.
  • Administrator : Anyone that was given by the Webmaster full or partial access to the Website's structure or with moderation rights on messages posted by Users.
  • User or Visitor : Any person visiting the Website pages.
  • Website : The following provisions apply to a single Website accessible via the www.aircraftube.com, www.aircraftube.org, www.aircraftube.net and www.all-aircraft.com. URL's
  • Service : All free informations and tools contained on the Website.
  • Comments : All text written by users on Blogs and comment pages available on the Website.
  • Media : All media available on or through the Website. One must distinguish the local media (photos, curves, drawings) and the external media (videos) which the Website refers.

    • Purpose of this site

    The purpose of this non-commercial site is purely educational. Reflecting a passion, it is also there to preserve the memory of all those who gave their lives, their health or energy in the name of freedom, aviation safety or simply our passenger comfort.

    Copyright

    Some media may have escaped the vigilance of Administrators with regard to copyrights. If a user reports copyright infringement, he will be asked to prove that he is indeed the rights's owner for the concerned media. If so, his decision on the Administrator's next action will be respected: A total suppression of the Media on the Website, or the addition of some owner's reference. The publication of a media on the internet normally having as a goal to make it visible to many people, the Administrators expect in any case that the second option will be most often chosen.

    Pursuant to the Law on copyright and related rights, the user has the right to download and reproduce information on the Website for personal use and provided that the source is mentionned. They cannot however be used for commercial or advertising purposes.

    Using Blogs and filing comments

  • Moderator : The Administrator reserves the right to prevent the publication of comments that are not directly related to the Service without providing any explanation. Similarly, all insults, out of scope or unethical material will be banned.
  • Identification : Persons wishing to post a comment or use any form of contact are required to provide identification by the means of a valid e-mail address.
  • Responsibilities : Comments are posted on the Website under the unique responsability of their authors and the Administrators may in no case be liable for any statements or claims that the users might have issued.

    • As the comment system is hosted and maintained on servers external to the Website, the Administrators may in no circumstances be held responsible for the use that administrators of these servers or other third parties may have with those comments or filed data.

    Content Liability

    The Administrators carefully check the reliability of the sources used. They cannot, however, guarantee the accuracy of any information contained on the Website, partly because of the multiple sources from which they come.

    JavaScript and cookies - Storing information

    This Website imperatively uses JavaScript and cookies to function properly. Neither of these technologies, or other means shall in no case be used on the Website for the retention or disclosure of personal information about Visitors. Exceptions to this rule will involve storing the Users banned for inappropriate comments they might have given as well as contact information for Users wishing to subscribe to future newsletters.

    When a user accesses the Website, the corresponding servers may automatically collect certain data, such as IP address, date and time of Website access, viewed pages and the type of browser used. This information is kept only for the purpose of measuring the number of visitors to the different sections of the site and make improvements.

    Donations - Advertising

    To continue providing the Service for free, the Webmaster reserves the right to insert advertising or promotional messages on any page of the Site. In the same idea, any donations will only by used to cover the running costs of the site, such as hosting, connection fees, hardware and software necessary for the development and maintenance of the Website.

    Links and other websites

    Administrators shall in no case be liable for the non-availability of websites operated by third parties to which users would access through the Website.

    Administrators assume no liability for any content, advertising, products and/or services available on such third party websites. It is reminded that those sites are governed by their own terms of use.

    Placing a link to third party sites or authorize a third party to include a link on their website refering to this Website does not mean that the Administrators recommend in any way the products or services offered by these websites.

    Modifications

    The Webmaster reserves the right to modify at any time without notification the present terms of use as well as all content or specific functionality that the Website offers.

    The modified terms and conditions immediately apply to the using Visitor when changes come online. Visitors are invited to consult the site regularly on the most current version of the terms and conditions

    Governing Law and Jurisdiction

    These general conditions are governed by Belgian law.

    In case of dispute regarding the interpretation and/or execution of the above terms, the parties agree that the courts of the district of Nivelles, Belgium shall have exclusive jurisdiction power.

    Credits page

    Wikipedia.org

    Wikipedia is a collaboratively edited, multilingual, free Internet encyclopedia.

    Youtube

    YouTube is a video-sharing website on which users can upload, view and share videos.

    Special thanks to all Youtube quality aviation vids providers, specially (Those I forgot, please excuse me or report) :

    Airboyd
    Andys Video
    Aviation videos archives
    Bomberguy
    Classic Aviation TV
    Historical Aviation Film Unit
    Horsemoney
    Jaglavaksoldier
    Joluqa Malta
    Just Planes
    Koksy
    Classic Airliners & Vintage Pop Culture
    Memorial Flight
    Octane130
    Okrajoe
    SDASM archives
    Spottydog4477
    The Aviators TV
    Valentin Izagirre Bengoetxea
    Vexed123
    VonBerlich
    Zenos Warbirds

    Bundesarchiv

    The German Federal Archives or Bundesarchiv are the National Archives of Germany.

    FAQ

    I don't see my comments any more!

    Please note that each page has it's own comment entry. So, if you enter a comment i.e. on the B-747, you will only see it on that related page.

    General comments are accessed via the "BLOG En" button.

    Comments are moderated, so please allow some delay before they appear, specially if you are outside Europe.

    Menus are developing below the page, because they are too long!

    But they remain accessible, for example by scrolling the mouse wheel, or with your finger (on the menu) on a smartphone or tablet.

    I see adds on all videos.

    Use a good free add remover software.

    The site is loading random pages at startup.

    We think it is a good way to bring back the memory of aircraft, persons or events sometimes quite forgotten.

    HELP PAGE

    Why this site?

    Discovery

    This website is dedicated to one's aeronautical passion (which I hope we share) and was realised mainly as an educationnal tool. Knowing that, you'll notice that each new visit brings random topics for the purpose of making new discoveries, some achievements or characters certainly not deserving the oblivion into which they have sometimes fallen.

    By these pages, we also want to pay tribute to all those who gave at one time or another, their lives or health in the name of freedom, aeronautical security or simply our comfort.

    Centralisation

    Internet is full of websites dedicated to aviation, but most are dedicated to subjects or periods that are very limited in space or time. The purpose of this site is to be as general as possible and thus treats all events as well as characters of all stripes and times while putting much emphasis on the most significant achievements.

    The same years saw birth of technologies like photography and cinema, thus permitting illustration of a large part of important aeronautical events from the start. Countless (and sometimes rare) media recently put online by enthousiasts finally give us access to these treasures, but the huge amount of information often makes things a little messy. A centralization effort is obviously most needed at this level.

    All persons who directly or indirectly contributed to the achievement or posting of such documents are here gratefully acknowledged.

    General

    Fluid website

    This site automatically fits the dimensions of your screen, whether you are on a desktop computer, a tablet or a smartphone.

    Bilingual website

    You can change the language by clicking on the flag in the upper left or via "Options" in the central menu. Of course, the videos remain in the language in which they were posted ...

    Browser compatibility

    The site is not optimized, or even designed to run on older browsers or those deliberately deviating from standards. You will most probably encounter display issues with Internet Explorer. In this case, it is strongly recommended installing a modern (and free!) browser that's respecting the standards, like Firefox, Opera, Chrome or Safari.

    Cookies and Javascript

    This site uses cookies and JavaScript to function properly. Please ensure that your browser is configured accordingly. Neither of these technologies, or other means shall in no case be used on the Site for the retention or disclosure of personal information about its Visitors. See the "Legal" page for more on this subject.

    Website layout

    Left menus

    Because of the lack of space on smartphones and small tablets, these menus are hidden. Everything is nevertheless accessible via the main menu option, located between the video and photo sections. This menu is placed there for compatibility reasons with some browsers, which play the videos over the menus.

    "Search" and "Latest" :
    The link "In Titles" restricts the search to the titles of different forms. Use this option if you are looking for a plane, a constructor, a pilot or a particular event that could have been treated as a subject.

    The link "In Stories" will bring you to a search in all texts (the "Story" tab) and will take more time. The search term will appear highlighted in green when opening the corresponding story.

    Would you believe, "Timeline" will show all subjects in chronological order.

    "Random" will reload the entire page with a new random topic.

    The bottom section keeps you abreast of the latest five entries. New topics are added regularly. Don't hesitate to come visit us often : add bookmark.

    Blogs and Comments central section

    Under the photos section comes the comments tabs window :

    You can enter general comments in your own language via one of the two buttons on the left (BLOG EN and BLOG FR). Note that these buttons are accessible regardless of the language to allow some participation in the other language.

    All comments are subject to moderation and will be published only if they comply with the basic rules of decorum, while remaining relevant to the purpose of this site.

    The third tab allows you to enter comments on the shown topic and is bilingual. Personal anecdotes, supplements and other information questions will take place here.

    The "Story" tab shows the explanatory texts. They are most often taken from Wikipedia, a site where we participate regularly.

    The "Data" tab is reserved for list of features and specifications.

    Right menus

    On a smartphone, the lack of space is growing and this menu is moved to the bottom of the page to give priority to videos and pictures.

    The top right icons are links to videos posted by third parties (on their own responsabilities) or by ourselves. The link below these icons will take you to the channel of the one who posted the video. Feel free to suggest other videos if you think they are of some interest (Use the BLOG button or the "Contact" link).