After the discovery of a serious fracture in a central stringer during a routine inspection last summer, LH’s beloved Ju52 ‘Tante Ju’ has been grounded while undergoing a complete overhaul. Now with the work nearly complete, she looks to return to service in May of this year, just in time to celebrate her 80th Anniversary which takes place in April. When all is said and done, €200,000 will have gone into repairs to make her airworthy again.
To give a sense of the severity of the damage, engineers at LH Technik compared it to a person suffering a broken neck. In spite of the challenges, it looks as though she’ll be back and better than ever. While repairs were going on for the fracture, other parts of the aircraft have been refreshed so that she’ll be in far better shape after this overhaul than she was before the crack was discovered.
Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin-Stiftung (DLBS), the non-profit group that cares for the Ju52, has been keeping a great ‘record’ of the renovation on their Facebook page. Their regular updates include videos, photographs, and technical information that help visitors keep track of, and understand what has been taking place during the last few months.
Tickets are on sale for flights this summer and can be purchased through DLBS’ website.
Here is their most recent post, a time lapse video showing the wing being installed onto the fuselage:
Posted by Lufthansa Ju 52 on Wednesday, March 16, 2016
