The German luggage company Rimowa, known worldwide for its grooved aluminum-body luggage, has resurrected the historic Junkers F13 airplane that was constructed with the same metal.The company has plans to build and certify it in Switzerland, followed by certification in the U.S. Rimowa has a replica on display this week at AirVenture and on Tuesday announced it plans to begin flight testing the first one in the coming months. Rimowa’s president and CEO, Dieter Morszeck – a pilot for more than 30 years – said his father developed the first luggage made from aircraft aluminum, which was invented in Germany in 1906.
The original single-engine Junkers F13, designed by German engineer Hugo Junkers in 1919, was the world’s first all-metal commercial airliner. By 1933, more than 330 of the airplanes were built and sold around the world. Only five are left today in museums around Europe, and no complete sets of plans exist, Morszeck said. To build the replica, Rimowa’s project team researched the original design and took a 3-D scan of a Junker in Paris. The new versions of the airplane will be powered by a Pratt & Whitney R-985 radial engine with 450 horsepower and the price tag will be $2.2 million. Morszeck said there’s no initial target for how many will be built, but the company is “well prepared” to fill demand. Future buyers will know exactly what they’re getting – a day VFR, open-cockpit classic airplane. “There will be no options for glass cockpits,” Morszeck said.
