The visit of the legendary Junkers Ju-52 airliner to Malmi Airport on Sunday 15 May 2005

Photo: Marko Koponen

Update 16 May 2005: On 15 May 2005, the sunny 67th Anniversary of Malmi Airport, "Tante Ju" lured in thousands of interested spectators. Malmi's own historical beauties, the DC-3 and An-2 also flew to delight the public and escorted "Auntie" on a local flight around 5 pm. Sightseeing flights for the public and lots of other aviation activity completed a perfect aviation day. See a video recorded from "Tante Ju" (MPEG, 7.5 MB). Images of the fine historical aviation day can be seen on the FSNordic forum (1, 2, 3, 4) and on the vacc.fi forum.

2 May 2005

The legendary 1930's tri-motor airliner Junkers Ju-52 (D-AQUI) will land at Malmi Airport on Sunday 15 May 2005 around 4 pm. The classic aircraft was built in Dessau in 1936 and is maintained by Deutsche Lufthansa Berlin-Stiftung. In its heyday this famous type served numerous European airlines including Aero o/y, the predecessor of Finnair.

The visit is especially timely because in June 2005 65 years will have passed since Aero o/y's "Kaleva" airliner (OH-ALL) of the same type was shot down over the Gulf of Finland while on a scheduled flight from Tallinn to Malmi Airport.

The visit to Malmi is part of "Tante Ju's" tour of Scandinavia and the Baltic. After its arrival, the aircraft will fly a local flight with invited guests. A contemporary of the Junkers, the sole airworthy DC-3 airliner in Finland (OH-LCH) will also be present along with the sturdy Antonov (ES-CAG) of An-2 Lennuklubi Helsinki and other historical aircraft of Malmi Airport.

Note! It is possible to get to fly on the DC-3 and on the An-2 by joining the associations maintaining these aircraft. The price of such an aviation-historical experience is not high: the annual membership fee is about 20-25 euro and a local flight costs around 30-40 euro. You can join the associations by filling in DC Association Finland's membership application and/or An-2 Lennuklubi Helsinki's membership application. Weather permitting, the associations will organize local flights at Malmi Airport on Sunday 15 May if enough members sign up for a flight. Only association members can fly in these aircraft.

Sunday 15 May will also be the 67th Anniversary of Malmi Airport. Everyone is welcome to see the rare guest and other historical aircraft, listen to big old-time radial engines and observe the lively aviation at the Airport and aviation clubs presenting their activities. All the normal services of Malmi Airport will be available. A limited number of paid parking spaces are available, and the public areas of the Airport are, as always, open to visitors. The event is not an airshow, there will be just normal Airport activity.

On Monday 16 May "Tante Ju" will fly three local flights and then continue its journey to Tallinn around 4 pm.

Friends of Malmi Airport Society's press release