Hünefeld and Lindner Junkers W 33

Hünefeld and Lindner Junkers W 33 (Photo: Wikipedia)

First Transatlantic flight by plane from Europe to America

In 1927 Hünefeld bought two Junkers W 33 aircraft from the Junkers company in Dessau, naming them after the two Norddeutscher Lloyd flagships SS Bremen and SS Europa.

His plans were supported by Hugo Junkers and Hermann Köhl, a World War I pilot and head of the Deutsche Luft Hansa Nightflight Branch. After some test flights, and breaking the record for flight duration, Hünefeld and Köhl flew to Baldonnel, Ireland, where they met James C. Fitzmaurice, the Irish Air Corps Commandant of the Baldonnel Airodrome.

On 12 April 1928 these three left Baldonnel in the Bremen and crossed the Atlantic Ocean, landing at Greenly Island at the south coast of Labrador, Canada. Even though they failed to reach their initial goal, New York, they were the first to cross the Atlantic from Europe to America.

Round the world flight attempt became Berlin in Germany to Tokyo in Japan

On 18 September 1928 von Hünefeld and Swedish pilot Karl Gunnar Lindner took off from Berlin in the Europa in an attempt to fly around the world.  After they arrived in Tokyo on 20 October, the flight was abandoned because of poor weather conditions and Hünefeld's declining health.

Hünefeld died in February 1929 in Berlin from stomach cancer and is buried in the Landeseigener Friedhof Berlin-Steglitz cemetery.

Source: Wikipedia