Photos: Philipp Prinzing/Junkers Aircraft
7 May 2025
Junkers Aircraft is set to launch one of the most ambitious private aircraft tours of the year: the Junkers A50 Junior Tour 2025.
This summer, veteran pilot Claus Cordes will take to the skies in the open-cockpit Junkers A50 Junior, retracing the legacy of 1920s and 30s long-distance flights across a stunning 14,000-kilometre route through Europe.
The tour begins on 7 June in Dessau, Germany — birthplace of the original Junkers Flugzeugwerke. From there, the handcrafted A50 Junior, a modern ultralight built in the corrugated-metal style of its predecessor, will embark on a cross-continental odyssey that blends old-world charm with state-of-the-art engineering.
“This is a journey through Europe with all senses,” said Junkers Aircraft. With stops across 18 countries, the tour aims not only to showcase the aircraft’s performance and design, but also to celebrate the culture, history and landscapes of Europe — felt, seen, and tasted from an open cockpit.
The route is picturesque. After lifting off from central Germany, Cordes will head northeast through Poland to Finland, where the A50 will be the star guest at the Kauhava Airshow and visit a museum home to one of the original 1929 models. From there, the aircraft pushes on to the North Cape — Europe’s northernmost point — before heading down the rugged Scandinavian coastline, across the North Sea to the Shetland Isles, and onto England for the Shuttleworth Air Show in Old Warden.
The second leg of the tour sees the A50 re-enter the EU via France, then zigzags southwest to Spain, Portugal, and the Gibraltar region. The journey continues eastward over the Mediterranean islands of Mallorca, Sardinia and Sicily, with the final leg charting a scenic path through Italy, Austria and Czechia, before concluding with a grand arrival on 19 July at the Flugwerft Oberschleißheim museum near Munich.
Claus Cordes is a pilot with more than 28,000 flight hours and 45 years in aviation. He’s a former Lufthansa captain on aircraft ranging from the Boeing 737 to the Airbus A380, and Cordes is a passionate advocate for classic aviation.
“This is pure freedom,” he says of flying the open-cockpit A50. “It’s about rediscovering Europe not just from the air, but with the wind on your face and the scent of each region in your nostrils.”
The new A50 Junior maintains the look and feel of its 1929 predecessor while featuring a modern 100hp Rotax engine, Garmin G3X avionics, and Galaxy rescue system. The aircraft embodies a rare blend of craftsmanship and cutting-edge technology — over 2,500 hours of manual labour and more than 10,000 hand-placed rivets go into each plane.
Junkers Aircraft’s goal is clear: to show that history, innovation, and passion are not opposing forces but complementary. The tour invites the public to slow down, to engage with aviation not as a means of transport but as a sensual, tactile experience.
Follow the tour at junkersaircraft.com/a50-junior-tour-2025 and on social media @junkers_aircraft
