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It’s 3pm on September 15. Dübendorf Air Base, a military airfield east of Zurich, buzzed with more activity than usu-al. Stringy clouds, like pieces of cotton pulled apart slowly, accented a bright blue sky as the sun cast its all-encom-

passing warmth over the city—the perfect setting for an avi-ation event that a few hundred guests from as far as Asia and Australia had flown in to witness. They were about to watch Dieter Morszeck, president and chief executive officer of Ger-man luxury luggage company Rimowa, and Oliver Bachmann, his co-pilot, climb into the cockpit of a Rimowa Junkers F13, a vintage aircraft that had been in seven years of reverse en-gineering—a reconstruction of the world’s first all-metal pas-senger aircraft built after World War I—and take it airborne once again for the first time in 65 years.

For an aircraft that saw its final journeys in the skies end in the 60s, it was an event to celebrate with well-deserved, 20s splendour. Guests were shuttled from the Kameha Grand hotel in a candy-store array of vintage Cadillacs, Buicks, Bent-leys and BMWs to the air base and ushered into a space re-sembling a barn dressed up with a fancy party red carpet. A magician showed off tricks to anyone who seemed in need of a laugh, whilst male and female actors channelling Anita Page and Fred Astaire through fashionable 20s outfits min-gled with guests and posed for photos. Miss Mobile, a quartet dressed as flapper women, entertained the formally dressed crowd, which included international press, with blues rendi-tions of modern popular hits the likes of Beyoncé’s “Crazy In Love” right up until the Rimowa Junkers F13 took off down the runway for her official flight.

Afterwards, the crowd broke into applause when Morsze-ck and Bachmann reemerged from the cockpit windows af-ter landing safely, returned to terra firma and shook hands, looking thrilled to have achieved what they set out to do. It was nearly sunset by then, with an early Swiss autumn chill beginning to settle in for the night, as guests strolled over to a hangar nearby to get a closer look at the reconstructed Ri-mowa Junkers F13 that had just completed its official maiden flight moments ago.

“Like riding a wiLd horse in the 20s.”Inside the hangar, thick black curtains prevented guests in the cocktail reception area from sneaking a preview of the din-ing hall where the Rimowa Junkers F13 was parked—at least, not until all was good and ready. When ushers finally pulled the curtains back in a dramatic fell swoop to reveal the dining

Seven years of research. 12,000 hours of construction. 2,600 parts. 35,000 rivets. And 60 kilogrammes of paint for the finish. Esquire joined Rimowa, the world’s leading luxury German luggage company, to witness their high-flying quest to bring a groundbreaking post World War I all-metal passenger aircraft, the Junkers F13, back to the skies.

Words by shermian Lim. PhotograPhs by thomas Lüthi/rimoWa 2016.

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hall, everyone certainly had something to gasp about. Parked demurely in a prominent corner of the hall under warm stage lighting, the corrugated duralumin body of the Rimowa Jun-kers F13 winked and beamed at onlookers, as though still flushed with exhilaration from her flight. Up close, she is a fine display of aviation craftsmanship, looking almost effort-lessly solid that it is easy to forget how, beginning with only partial blueprints of the original plane, this new model took several years to plan and reconstruct (based off a few remain-ing F13s that reside in museums around Europe), and to test, prior to that day’s maiden flight event.

In fact, that evening in Zurich was not even the first time this prototype made its public appearance. In the final week of July last year, the Rimowa Junkers F13 was presented to aviation fans at the 2015 Experimental Aircraft Association Airventure, held in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, but she was a year away from being ready to fly. At the unveiling, Morszeck told the crowd there that it all started with a dream. “I’ve been a pilot for 33 years now, and when we crossed the Atlan-tic with a Junkers Ju-52 [in 2012], when I saw Greenland’s white and turquoise from above, something told me that I had to create these planes and make this experience avail-able to people.” The original F13 model, developed and in-troduced by German aircraft developer and engineer Hugo Junkers in 1919 for passenger carriage-only purposes, was a four-passenger plane with an open cockpit that allowed the two pilots to hear and feel the weather conditions as they navigated the skies. For Morszeck, who is known to fly his company’s private plane to business meetings around the world, being able to pilot the Rimowa Junkers F13 was like riding a “wild horse in the 20s”.

a vintage rideWith just one four-passenger Rimowa Junkers F-13 available, Zurich guests would not have the opportunity to ride in it, but instead, they would fly with its younger, more leisurely relative, the Junkers Ju-52, one of the most widely used air-craft carriers of its time. Tickets were issued to guests for a pleasure ride operated by specialty flights company, JU-AIR, a day after witnessing the Rimowa Junkers F13’s maiden flight. Two planes, each capable of carrying 17 people, stood on the tarmac, the Rimowa logo emblazoned on each side of one plane. Guests took turns to stand on the rolling stairs for a photo opportunity before dropping their heads to climb into the plane, find their spot on any single-seater on either side of the aisle, strap in and, while awaiting takeoff, take in details of the plane’s interior.

Looking up, you could see bright white duralumin with perpendicular rows of rivets driven into the wing spar, hold-ing the plane’s corrugated metal skin firmly in place. To your left, or right, were arm rests matching your rust brown leather seats, and Sennheiser noise-cancelling headphones. Straight ahead, the entrance to the cockpit gaped open, allowing you to see dials twirling on the vintage dashboard. Inside, the two pilots had standing room for one visitor to come and peer out into the horizon with them, if they so wished. Announce-ments made on the intercom were muffled and barely intel-ligible when the engine pulsed to life. Not that anyone was listening—it was time to fly.

With a wagon-shaped fuselage, the Junkers Ju-52 was ide-

al for carrying cargo, up to two tonnes of freight. However, the 1920 Treaty of Versailles that dictated a blanket destruction of all existing aircraft and engines, and barred German manu-facturers from producing new aircraft for a few years, slowed its initial rollout. Its early years saw Deutsche Luft Hansa, the precursor to modern-day airliner Lufthansa, operating them mainly as a passenger carrier, but as the Junkers Ju-52 proved to be a reliable military workhorse, other European forces—in addition to the Nazis—used it during World War II as a medi-um bomber.

That September day in Zurich, Rimowa passengers got a sense of what a military exercise would be like when the two planes took off, heading southwest towards the outskirts of the city, speeding over Lake Zurich and surrounding high ground; hues of green and blue interspersed with man-made urban homes. Occasionally, the planes would soar together, one tailing the other before dipping down or nosing upwards to break formation, not unlike a slow and rather unstable roller coaster ride. This was not one for those prone to mo-tion sickness.

But for those with a daring penchant for aeronautical ad-ventures, the ride would be just the right sort of thrill, and for the financially well-endowed, hardcore enthusiasts, the reviv-al of the smaller and more powerful Junkers F13 was a dream come true. Armed with a complete set of drawings, as well as assembly know-how, Morszeck could now share the joys of owning and operating one of these beauties—Rimowa will assemble your very own Junkers F13 for a cool RM9.2 million.

“it’s not a bad idea to have brakes.”When the original F13 planes engaged the skies in 1919, it broke records for reaching an altitude of 6,750m and 26-hours worth of fuel tank capacity. Planes of that era mostly had can-vas wings supported by a wooden frame, but the F13 took its place in history books as the world’s first all-metal passenger aircraft with self-supporting, cantilever wings bolted to the centre of the plane’s body. The entire plane was wrapped in a corrugated duralumin skin—the same material that Rimo-wa makes some of its luggage collections out of—providing more strength to the plane while being lighter, and dramat-ically more weather-resistant than any previous aircraft. Be-fore the Junkers fleet was merged with Deutsche Luft Hansa, F13s were used for a variety of purposes—from the practical, like an aerial ambulance or postal delivery; to downright ob-scure, like chemical weapons testing and a carrier for racing pigeons. The F13 could also be converted into a floatplane by adding two duralumin skis for takeoff and landing on the sur-face of water.

Inside the cockpit, a basic dashboard with a compass, speedometer, tachometer, altimeter, fuel and oil gauges, a cooling water thermometer and two clocks made up what Morszeck describes as back-to-basics, “simple flying”. A four-seater cabin held upholstered leather seats with safety belts and heating that would keep passengers warm in tem-peratures of up to -20c. The three glazed windows could be partially opened for a clearer view. Initially powered by Mercedes D Illa or BMW Illa six-cylinder, 185hp engines, later F13s were fitted with various upgrades over a 12-year production period before settling on the 310hp Junkers L5 as the mainstay.

a three-engine Junkers g24 flying over a Junkers F13.

Previous pagethe crew of the F13 “annaliese” with company workers after setting the world altitude record on september 13, 1919.

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Clockwise from top left a Pratt and Whitney radial engine upclose; engineers studying plans to assemble the rimowa Junkers F13; 3-d rendering of the plane’s fuselage; the plane is made from duralumin, a light metal alloy that revolutionised plane manufacturing in the 20s.

The Rimowa Junkers F13 reproduction stays close to its roots, but with some essential upgrades. At her maiden flight, Morszeck explained to a chuckling crowd that as a pilot, he would prefer to have an engine that works. “The original engine, we have one here in the [Flieger-Flab] museum [in Dübendorf Air Base]. It’s a Junkers L5 [engine] and it’s from 1927. It’s the only one running in the world. We have no con-fidence in this engine because it’s so old.” A newer engine—a Pratt and Whitney radial engine with 450hp from the 50s—manufactured in Winnipeg—was fitted instead, along with a brand new Hamilton Standard propeller. To comply with modern safety standards, a Redline T6 Conversion brake kit was added to the Rimowa Junkers F13. “It’s not so easy to control the plane on the ground without brakes,” said co-pilot Bachmann. “I think it’s not a bad idea to have brakes. It’s very much improved, no doubt about it.”

“we do it for passion”“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams” are often quoted words credited to Eleanor Roosevelt, and to say that Dieter Morszeck, third-generation owner of the German luxury luggage company, is a man who has everything, is overly simple—men who have everything but lack dreams or drive inevitably whittle away into obscu-rity. In spearheading this project, Dieter indulges his pas-sion for flight, while paying tribute to Rimowa’s history and his father’s ingenuity: Richard Morszeck (the name Rimowa

is derived from the first two letters of his full name, Richard Morszeck Warenzeichen) first introduced the corrugated aluminum suitcase that was ideal for travellers headed for the tropics, where leather suitcases would warp in the heat. Rimowa luggages, says Dieter, is not a mass product. It is an innovation “designed to make travel more pleasurable.”

He feels the same way about the F13, like there is “adven-ture just waiting to happen,” a sentiment that is the very es-sence of 21st century travel. Recreating the Rimowa Junkers F13 was a culmination of many elements. It started as a collab-orative effort when Bernd Huckenbeck, chairman of the Asso-ciation of Friends of Historical Aircraft in Mönchengladbach, Germany, was looking to purchase a plane for the association. Preferring to have a Junkers plane, Huckenbeck found an ally in Kurt Waldmeier, head of JU-Air, a Swiss luxury pleas-ure flights company, to launch the project. Dieter Morszeck pledged his support when he learned of the project, kickstart-ing the hunt for an existing F13 that might be in good enough condition to refurbish. But they came up empty-handed.

Turning to their backup plan, the focus was now on finding blueprints, which also proved to be a hunt in a hay-stack. Huckenbeck found drawings for the original F13 in the Deutsche Museum archives in Munich, but they lacked significant details required to receive approval from aviation authorities. In the 12 years between 1919 to 1931 that the F13 was in production—before the Nazis forced Hugo Junkers to hand over valuable documents, along with his planes—the later years in the manufacturing cycle saw a larger wingspan

the rimowa Junkers F13 flies over Zurich during her official maiden flight.

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and other improved components being fitted onto the planes, rendering the original plans obsolete. A handful of planes did survive—four out of the 348 produced, to be exact, and can be found in museums across the European continent in Mu-nich, Budapest, Stockholm as well as in Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace in Paris, where the engineering team found the most viable aircraft, as a sample from which to build the new Rimo-wa Junkers F13. From this plane, measurements, a database of specifications and a 3-D mockup were obtained, enabling the team to fill in the blanks.

Twelve thousand hours of construction. Two thousand and six hundred parts, held together by 35,000 rivets. Sixty kgs of paint. Seven years of research, ideation and execution brought about the return of the Junkers F13 to the skies.

“a different kind of traveLLing”It’s 5pm on September 15. The crowd attending the reception at Dübendorf Air Base for the Rimowa Junkers F13’s official maiden takeoff had moved away from the makeshift recep-tion area and away from the enchanting Miss Mobile, crowd-ing in front of velvet ropes separating them from the runway, where the Rimowa Junkers F13 sat with Dieter Morzseck and co-pilot Oliver Bachmann inside the cockpit. Grandi-ose music played overhead as the standing crowd waited in anticipation, shifting their weight from one foot to the other, gravel crunching underfoot as the moment for takeoff seemed to stretch on. Suddenly, the emcee’s voice rang over-head, declaring that the moment had arrived for Annaliese 2—the name christened upon the Rimowa Junkers F13 as homage to one of the first original planes—to make history.

Propeller churning and engine popping in quick succes-sion, she began to taxi, gingerly at first, before slowly gather-

ing momentum. At the velvet ropes, cameras flashed contin-uously as Annaliese 2 shrank further away from the crowd. Watching her rumbling down the runway through the screen of a smartphone recording a video seemed to diminish the moment into mere digital signals, but if you took your eye away from the screen, you would have seen her gain momen-tum after 200m and leap into the air, cruising at a speed of 176kmh on her 450hp engine. Soon, she vanished from the sight of onlookers on the ground, but Morzseck and Bach-mann sitting in the cockpit flickered onto projector screens above the stage in the reception area, reporting live on the weather conditions and what they saw as they navigated the aircraft above the air base. As the plane throbbed past like an oversized hang glider, not more than 100m above the crowd, it was a chance for everyone to dream up their own flashback to what it must have been like to fly in the 20s, a gilded age famously known as the Roaring Twenties. More importantly, really, it was a pioneering era in aviation history.

Certification for the Rimowa Junkers F13 is expected at the end of this year. Morzseck muses about taking the plane to different places in Europe, and perhaps make an appearance at the Goodwood Revival, but there are no concrete plans be-yond today’s resurrection. “So far, the aircraft is flying and I’m very optimistic,” said the 63-year old CEO of Rimowa dur-ing the post-flight press conference. It is easy to forget that Morzseck is in his retirement years—with his cheerful de-meanour and bright eyes taking in the scene before him, rev-elling in the results of his seven-year initiative. “When I was watching you up in the air, honestly, I was a little bit afraid,” said one journalist. “How did you feel?”

Morzseck simply replied: “Before takeoff, I was nervous but usually once I’m in the air, I feel quite relaxed. And I really liked flying with [Oliver]. I was not nervous at all.” 

Above the rimowa Junkers F13 took seven years of research, planning and approval before assembly could begin. Facing page a F13 in dübendorf, switzerland, 1922.