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Bucker Bu 131 (Jungmann)

Bucker Bu 131 (Jungmann) History

The rebuilding of the Luftwaffe in the 1930s required flying classrooms that they could use to train pilots. Carl Bucker was a German marine in World War I (1914-1918) who moved to Sweden after the war and worked at Svenska Aero AB.

With good aviation knowledge, he returned to Germany and founded Bucker-Flugzeugbau GmbH in 1932 with the aim of developing and manufacturing sport aircraft and related light aircraft. These ended up in the Luftwaffe.

The company's first product was the Bucker Bu 131 "Jungmann", a two-seat (tandem) biplane for the basic trainer role. It was this aircraft that was commissioned by the Luftwaffe to train their fighter pilots in the nuances of basic combat flying.

This is the last double-decker aircraft built on German soil.

The Bu 131B has an overall length of 21.7 feet, a wingspan of 24.2 feet and a height of 7.5 feet. Curb weight is 840 lbs and MTOW is 1,500 lbs. Power comes from a Hirth HM 504 4-cylinder inverted in-line piston engine producing 100 hp and driving a two-bladed propeller unit in the nose. Performance includes a top speed of 115 mph, a cruising speed of 110 mph, a range of up to 390 miles and a service ceiling of 13,300 feet.

The rate of climb was set at 6,600 feet.

Beyond Aero's pre-production Tatra T-131 was the German C-4 production standard during the war and Aero's production standard for the Bucker Bu 131B. The post-war form became the Aero C-104 with a Walter Minor 4-III engine. About 260 were built to this standard.

As mentioned earlier, the Japanese Empire had enough German biplanes to order local versions to serve its army and navy. This affected the Japanese International Ki-86A 4 and Ki-86B 4 used as primary trainers. The Ki-86A model was powered by Hitachi Ha-47 engines, while the Ki-86B was developed with a wooden airframe, mainly due to metal shortages during World War II. The Kyushu K9W1 "Momiji" Navy Type 2 Trainer Model 11 is the main production version of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN).

These received the standard engine Hitachi GK4A "Hatsukaze 11".

A modern version of the Bucker Bu 131 can be found under the name BP 131. Poland developed the SSH T-131P, and starting in 1994 built four with Walter Minor 4-III engines. It then evolved into the production-ready 1995 SSH T-131PA with its LOM M332AK engine.