This is a difficult topic to breach, but let’s lay the rules out again for the record:
Politics, religion, and sexual content do not belong in the Microsoft Flight Simulator forums.
If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:
- Receive a formal warning from the moderator staff
- Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to, and including, indefinitely
This is NOT an attempt at re-writing or suppressing history. We can argue that many of the planes represented here in MSFS, stock or Third Party, have involvement in times that cover the worst of humanity’s history.
JU-52 was a popular Air Transport Plane in the 1930s. So was the DC-3. Both were used as transports during World War 2 and sometime after in the early days of the Cold War.
Let’s NOT make this Political folks. That’s the only warning this thread is getting.
5 Likes
That’s a very good point. And there are dozens of people (including me!) who are clamoring for a good DC-3. Maybe painted up with D-Day stripes for the local airshow circuit?
The JU-52 will be a very fun aircraft to fly, and the model from what we’ve seen so far, looks very nice.
When it’s all said and done, these classic old aircraft (from the days of vacuum tube radios and navigating by sextant) deserve to be remembered for their place in aviation history.
Please note that we will not allow discussion about this plane when referring to its ties to the Nazi Germany regime. The Junkers Ju-52 was used for several decades in civilian aviation in many countries. Anyone who wishes to discuss the darker side of its former use or make light of a very serious part of history for many people will not be tolerated here on the forums. Please keep political conversations to external forums.
Once this aircraft is out, any inappropriate liveries or jokes posted here will also not be tolerated and removed.
Politics, religion, and sexual content do not belong in the Microsoft Flight Simulator forums.
If a member is found to have participated in such actions, they will:
- Receive a formal warning from the moderator staff
- Be banned from the forums for a length of time based on the severity of the infraction up to, and including, indefinitely
8 Likes
On a certain free website of mods, there is a celestial sextant mod.
I have used it to do a long distance flight in the DC-6 (Hey I got close enough to my destination to recognise the area)… this will be another aircraft I can use it on.
I find this type of aircraft much more challenging than just pressing buttons on a console or overhead and letting the machines fly me 
Also, the sound of the three trimotor engines should be awesome.
Graham
I would love to see this in some modern liveries such as United or Southwest, could be fun run SJC to San Diego in the Junkers😁
So what you’re saying in effect is that any discussion about whether or not the JU-52 was a good choice is banned, verboten.
Negative, discussion regarding what planes you think would have been a better choice is allowed here. Every thing you wrote in your first post is accurate and factual, and reasons for you to believe it wasn’t the best choice for a featured plane. We just ask that we leave it at that point.
Ain’t nothing free around here. 
Even want us to pay for a 103… 
Not quite my kind of aircraft, but I am glad to see more aircraft than modern obscure overpriced GA ones in the sim.
Happy to let it go, but the question’s at least worth raising.
Finis from me, thanks.
The point is that it is completely pointless and disruptive.
Israel used 2 dozen Messerschmitt 109s in their 1948 war against Egypt and the fighters probably saved the state of Israel.
It was the Nazis, not planes that committed the crimes.
The Junkers 52 is a very interesting and important piece of aviation history that was originally designed as a civilian plane. If you have a problem with that then you shouldnt be flying anything from that era as it all was at some point int the hands of some bad people.
Here’s the “other” famous tri-motor, that borrowed heavily from the design principles of the Junkers aircraft. So heavily in fact, that Junkers won two lawsuits against Ford.
The photo below was taken at a local Airport Day… pre-pandemic.
I agree. On the point that any technology can be used for evil purposes. I welcome the Junkers 52 plane and can’t wait to fly it. We shouldn’t shun Boeing even though those were flown into the World Trade Center on 9/11. But I am not at all surprised that the historical implication came up as a question.
Another important point is that Hugo Junkers was an antifascist and probably one of the most prominent victims of National Socialism. The Nazis confiscated his factory in 1933 and banned him from ever entering it or the city of Dessay. He died in 1935, and I assume the unimaginable injustice he was subjected to had a lot to do with that.
From Wikipedia:
Hugo Junkers was “a democrat and pacifist”
had refused to employ Hermann Göring which had enraged that latter
When the Nazis came into power in 1933 they requested Junkers and his businesses aid in the German re-armament. When Junkers declined, the Nazis responded by demanding ownership of all patents and market shares from his remaining companies, under threat of imprisonment on the grounds of High Treason. In 1934 Junkers was placed under house arrest, and died at home in 1935 during negotiations to give up the remaining stock and interests in Junkers. Under Nazi control, his company produced some of the most successful German warplanes of the Second World War.
There were many other German constructors who we can not acquit so lightly, but Junkers has absolutely nothing with any of the crimes that happened later. That means his only crime was that he had constructed planes that the Nazis needed, including the Ju-52. Which wasn’t even a plane designed for war.
Slight difference, though - the Boeings were appropriated, not manufactured by that day’s end users.
In the case of the Ju-52… my family and group connections to that period initially made me a bit hesitant. But reading up on its history, I’m more willing to operate it as a modern aircraft or in paints that put it outside the 1933-1945 timeframe. Wartime repaints of the aircraft in allied hands are fine with me too. “Captured” repaints would make me willing to fly any Axis aircraft from that period - though I’ve found some developers got surprisingly prickly when I’ve made the request.
I do agree that, to the extent the aircraft provokes this kind of conversation, it was an odd choice for one of the first out of the gate.
All things considered, looking forward to its relese.
Very modern aircraft (without mentioning them but you can imagine which ones ) have made mistakes during various military missions, “mistakes” with civilian casualties in various parts of the world despite the ultra-modern systems,and in many war theaters,many, many years after ww2. Design errors that indirectly led to the deaths of hundreds of people (even in the case of the first civilian airliners when each accident created a precedent to learn from)
Attributing more than one meaning to a flying machine does not diminish the ingenuity or the genius of the creator but mortifies the intellect of those who make criticisms based on ideals rather than on the evaluation of what they are. Be it censoring them or idolizing them.
That is, flying machines, which can be operated by anyone.
Even just having to specify such information is mortifying from my point of view (although appreciated as they disclose interesting knowledge to the less informed)
It is just my opinion that does not involve framerate or game performance\simulation status etc. for once.
True, though there’s a difference between mistakes and intent.
I agree that evaluating the machine as a machine is one way to look at it. But on the other hand, since this is an entertainment product, there’s a strong element of role play. For some users, there’s a question of, “do I want to be in those shoes?” The answer is bound to be personal.
Here’s an example. In my earlier post I alluded (without crossing any forum policy lines, I hope) to the fact that I hesitate to connect with the equipment of certain powers during the 1933-1945 period. But it’s also true that I’ve spent a lot of time studying the history of that period, and I have friends, including close ones, from all nations. I’m caught up in it enough that, in 1975, when it first came out in English translation, my parents bought me a copy of Lothar-Guenther Buchheim’s novel Das Boot. Loved it. Loved the movie when it came out - saw it multiple times. Own it in multiple versions.
When Aces of the Deep was released, I bought it, loaded it, started a mission, lined up my targeting on an Allied troopship - and then couldn’t pull the trigger.
The difference is that I was fine - still am - reading about it. But it wasn’t an experience I wanted to have.
That’s my mileage - others’ may vary. But if we’re talking about this release - and how we’re reacting to it - “do people want to have the experience?” is a pretty big marketing consideration.
At the risk of repeating - I think the airplane was an odd choice for an early release because it leads to more complicated conversations and buying conversations than might have been ideal.
But I do look forward to flying it.
I find it interesting that people are calling this “the first out of the gate”. Isn’t this the third or 4th airplane Asobo has released since introduction of the sim? It wasn’t the first choice, it was a choice. Along with several other choices beforehand. And why are we not counting the first 30 in the count of aircraft Asobo built and released? And there will be other choices.
Not to mention it wasn’t an “odd” choice. It was chosen to complement the next World Update, World Update #6. And, yes, while it was used in war, many airliners were used in war; this airliner had quite a long, industrious, and acclaimed life as an airliner before and after the war, which is totally the focus of this particular release.
I’ve been finding people very angry lately. I think we all deserve some post-ish-covid trauma treatment.
Politics, Religion, and Sexual Content
Considering the controversy behind the aircraft, someone MUST have expected this to be brought up. Again, I am neutral on this topic. But I really find it humorous that there seems to be little insight that certain individuals might have strong feelings about this. Don’t take my post too seriously (preferably read with a chuckle) but… this is the equivalent of Aerosoft’s “The Bus” simulator featuring its first add-on from the Historical Bus Legends series being Georgia Slave Transport Utility Vehicle. 
(only to be discussed on the merits of excellent passenger capacity and fuel economy)
