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Baade 152
Sketch of the two prototype variants of the 152 that flew between 1958 and 1961.
Role	Airliner
Manufacturer	VEB Flugzeugwerke Dresden
Designed by	Brunolf Baade - Fritz Freytag
First flight	4 December 1958
Retired	1961
Status	Never entered service
Primary user	Intended to be Interflug
Number built	2 flight prototypes + 1 completed that never flew. Several abandoned while under construction.

The Baade 152 also known as Dresden 152, VL-DDR 152 or simply 152 was the first German jet passenger airliner. It was built and tested in Dresden (East Germany) between 1956 and 1961. The "152" represents the final development in the Junkers aircraft family which ended with the "development planes" (Entwicklungsflugzeug - EF).

Design and development

Baade is the name of the designer of the plane, Brunolf Baade. Only two prototypes for flight were built. The first prototype V1/I (DM-ZYA) was derived from the Samoljot 150 or Alekseyev 150 jet bomber designed by former Junkers engineers in the Soviet Union. It included a tandem landing gear and glazed nose for the navigator, which was a common feature in many Eastern Bloc aircraft. The 152's landing gear was unusual for a passenger plane in that the main gear was housed along the centerline of the fuselage with outrigger wheels in the wing-tips (similar to the more well-known Boeing B-47). The tail of the airplane was tested on a propeller driven aircraft, the Soviet Il-14, which was built under license in East Germany.

The maiden flight of this aircraft took place 4 December 1958 and lasted 35 minutes. The aircraft was lost on its second flight in a crash at Ottendorf-Okrilla while beginning landing approach on 4 March 1959, taking the lives of the entire crew. The reasons for the crash were never fully investigated and the results of the limited investigation were only made public in 1990.

Test flights continued with the second prototype V4/II (DM-ZYB). This second prototype had a different landing gear configuration, with an unusual configuration of the main landing gear sharing the same pylon as the engines. This aircraft also had abandoned the glazed nose for the navigator.

The third prototype, V5/II (DM-ZYC), only served ground tests.

The flight testing for commercial use was nearly finished by early 1961 with four aircraft in production for the East German state airline Deutsche Lufthansa (later rebranded Interflug). At this time, the East German government stopped all aeronautical industry activities, as the Soviet Union who promoted their own design Tu-124 did not want to buy any of these aircraft nor supported any further development.

All examples of the aircraft were scrapped though currently there is a restoration of the abandoned 152/II #011 fuselage, which was begun in 1995 at EADS EFW (Elbe Flugzeugwerke GmbH) in Dresden, which is the direct successor of VEB Flugzeugwerke Dresden.

Chronology

Sketch of the 152 as it would have appeared in service with Interflug

• 12 October 1956 - First test run of jet engine Pirna 014
• March 1958 - First presentation of airplane 152 and jet engine Pirna 014 at the Leipzig Spring Fair
• 30 April 1958 - Roll out of first 152/I V1 prototype plane
• 4 December 1958 - First flight of prototype 152/I V1 for 35 minutes
• 4 March 1959 - Second flight of prototype 152/I V1 for 55 minutes. Plane crashed at landing killing the crew.
• 9 September 1959 -Testing of Pirna 014 jet engines on test plane Ilyushin Il-28R
• 30 July 1960 - Start of ground testing for 152/II V4 plane
• 26 August 1960 - First flight of prototype 152/II V4 for 22 minutes
• 4 September 1960 - Second flight of prototype 152/II V4 for 20 minutes
• December 1960 - End of ground testing of prototype 152/II V4
• March 1961 - End of Pirna 014 jet engine production
• 20 June 1961 - Last flight of Pirna 014 jet engine on test plane IL-28R
• Mid-1961 - Scrapping of all produced 152 planes

Specifications (152/II V4)

Data from 152 Homepage

General characteristics

• Crew: 4+2
• Capacity: 48/57/72 (depending on configuration)
• Length: 31.4 m (103 ft)
• Wingspan: 26.3 m (86.3 ft)
• Height: 9.00 m (29.5 ft)
• Wing area: 136 m² (1,463 sq. ft)
• Empty weight: 28,580 kg (63,008 lbs.)
• Max takeoff weight: 46,500 kg (102,514 lbs)
• Powerplant: 4× Pirna 014 turbojet, 30.9 kN (6,946.5 lbs) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 920 km/h (572 mph)
• Cruise speed: 800 km/h (497 mph)
• Range: 2,000-2,500 km (depending on configuration) (1242-1553 miles)

See also

Related development

• Ju 287
• OKB-1 EF 140
  

Comparable aircraft

• Avro Jetliner
• B-47 Stratojet
• Tupolev Tu-124
  

External links

• 152 Homepage (most of it in German only)
• The Rise and Fall of the East German Aircraft Industry Air & Space Magazine February/March 1996
• Brunolf Baade at Wikipedia Germany
• Alexejew / Samoljot 150 at Wikipedia Germany
• East German promotion movie part one, part two

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Published in July 2009.

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