{"id":19638029,"date":"2026-09-03T12:01:48","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T10:01:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/junkers-g-38-wing-cabins-giant-airliner\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T08:41:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T06:41:37","slug":"junkers-g-38-wing-cabins-giant-airliner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/junkers-g-38-wing-cabins-giant-airliner\/","title":{"rendered":"Junkers G.38: The Airliner With Passenger Seats Inside the Wing"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\n\n<style>\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid #0F1720;background:#fff;color:#0F1720;font-family:inherit;font-size:14px;font-weight:700;line-height:1;letter-spacing:0;text-transform:none;cursor:pointer;box-shadow:none;transition:background .15s,color 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Junkers, being Junkers, looked at that volume and decided it was a waste to fill it with nothing but structure. So they put passengers in it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>On the second aircraft, six people sat inside the leading edge of the wing, out between the fuselage and the inner engines, with the view a modern airline passenger would sell a kidney for. Mechanics, meanwhile, could walk along a corridor inside the wing and service the engines in flight.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f5f5f5;padding:20px 22px;margin:24px 0;font-size:15px;line-height:1.8\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:600;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>First flight:<\/strong> 6 November 1929 at Dessau, as D-2000<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Built:<\/strong> two in Germany, plus six licence-built in Japan as the Mitsubishi Ki-20<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Wingspan:<\/strong> 44 m, with a root section around two metres thick<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Crew:<\/strong> seven<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Passengers:<\/strong> up to 34 on the second aircraft, six of them seated inside the wing<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Cruise:<\/strong> 175 km\/h, maximum around 225 km\/h<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Engines:<\/strong> four, changed repeatedly through the type&rsquo;s life, ending with Jumo diesels<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Survivors:<\/strong> none<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The thick-wing idea, taken seriously<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Hugo Junkers had spent two decades arguing that the future was the flying wing &mdash; that eventually the whole aircraft would be lifting surface, and the fuselage would disappear. The G.38 is what that conviction looks like when it collides with 1929 engineering reality.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The wing is enormous, deep enough to stand up in near the root, and structurally the entire aeroplane. The fuselage is almost an afterthought hanging beneath it. It looks less like an airliner than like something a wing grew.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/junkers-g-38-d-2500-schiphol.jpg\" alt=\"The Junkers G.38 D-2500\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">D-2500, the second G.38 and the one fitted with passenger cabins in the wing leading edge. The scale of the centre section is the whole story. Photo: Joost J. Bakker, CC BY 2.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<p>Contemporary engineers were not universally charmed by the wing seats. The German technical press, in a description translated for American readers in 1930, was politely unconvinced.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;The central cabins, being in the wing are lighted through the ceiling. In our opinion they are more suitable for freight, leaving the fuselage cabins for the passengers.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Zeitschrift des Vereines deutscher Ingenieure<\/strong> &mdash; Unsigned technical description, 4 January 1930, translated as NACA Aircraft Circular No. 116<\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>That is a useful corrective to the legend. The wing cabins were real, but the celebrated forward-facing panoramic glazing is best evidenced on the second machine, D-2500; the first aircraft&rsquo;s wing cabins were lit from above, and the men who measured it thought the whole idea better suited to cargo.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">A moving target<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>The G.38 was rebuilt almost continuously. It began with a mismatched set of four engines &mdash; two Junkers L55 V12s and two smaller L8s &mdash; and worked through several combinations before settling on Jumo diesels in 1934. Passenger capacity on the first aircraft went from 13 to 19 to 30 as the fuselage was rebuilt with two decks.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>It also went to Britain. When D-2000 flew into Croydon in 1931 the newsreel cameras were waiting, and the commentary caught the only thing anybody cared about.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><em>&ldquo;Giant Liner&rsquo;s Maiden Flight. Junkers G.38 &ndash; largest all-metal aeroplane in the World &ndash; arrives. A &lsquo;Moth&rsquo; could go between her landing wheels!&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>British Pathe<\/strong> &mdash; Newsreel intertitle, Croydon, 1931<\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/junkers-g-38-d-apis-sola-airport.jpg\" alt=\"The Deutsche Lufthansa Junkers G.38 at Sola Airport in Norway\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">D-APIS at the opening of Sola Airport in Norway. Lufthansa used the G.38 as a flagship rather than a workhorse. Photo: Anders Beer Wilse, public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Two aircraft, two endings<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Only two were built in Germany, though Mitsubishi licence-built six in Japan as the Ki-20 heavy bomber &mdash; a type so secret that most Japanese had no idea it existed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The first German aircraft crashed at Dessau in 1936 during a test flight after maintenance. The test pilot, Wilhelm Zimmermann, survived, and nobody was killed. The second was taken over by the Luftwaffe in 1939 as a transport and was destroyed on the ground at Athens-Tatoi on 17 May 1941, in an RAF raid.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Nothing survives. What remains is the idea &mdash; that if you build a wing big enough, you may as well live in it &mdash; which resurfaces every time somebody draws a blended-wing-body airliner and is told it will never be certified.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>British Pathe at Croydon, 1931:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qKoCy9BBpsQ\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p>Earlier Pathe coverage, with a Junkers A50 parked underneath the wing for scale:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iVotprX0XIY\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p>And Junkers&rsquo; own film of the aircraft:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qT6QCZ9C4O4\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\n\n\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>Did the Junkers G.38 really have seats inside the wing?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. On the second aircraft, D-2500, six passengers sat inside the leading edge of the wing, out between the fuselage and the inner engines. The wing was around two metres thick at the root, deep enough to stand up in.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Could mechanics reach the engines in flight?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Yes. A corridor inside the wing allowed the engines to be serviced while airborne, and the aircraft carried a crew of seven.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Did the wing cabins have forward-facing windows?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The famous forward-facing panoramic glazing is best evidenced on the second aircraft. A German technical description translated for American readers in 1930 says the central wing cabins were lit from above, and its authors thought the arrangement better suited to freight than passengers.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many Junkers G.38s were built?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Two in Germany. Mitsubishi also licence-built six in Japan as the Ki-20 heavy bomber, a type so secret that most Japanese had no idea it existed.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How big was the Junkers G.38?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Its wingspan was 44 metres and it was 23.21 metres long. It cruised at 175 km\/h with a maximum of around 225 km\/h, and carried up to 34 passengers on the second aircraft.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What happened to the two German G.38s?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The first crashed at Dessau in 1936 during a post-maintenance test flight; the test pilot survived and nobody was killed. The second was taken over by the Luftwaffe in 1939 as a transport and destroyed on the ground at Athens-Tatoi on 17 May 1941 in an RAF raid. Nothing survives.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\n\n\n\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Did the Junkers G.38 really have seats inside the wing?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes. On the second aircraft, D-2500, six passengers sat inside the leading edge of the wing, out between the fuselage and the inner engines. The wing was around two metres thick at the root, deep enough to stand up in.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Could mechanics reach the engines in flight?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Yes. A corridor inside the wing allowed the engines to be serviced while airborne, and the aircraft carried a crew of seven.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Did the wing cabins have forward-facing windows?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The famous forward-facing panoramic glazing is best evidenced on the second aircraft. A German technical description translated for American readers in 1930 says the central wing cabins were lit from above, and its authors thought the arrangement better suited to freight than passengers.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How many Junkers G.38s were built?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Two in Germany. Mitsubishi also licence-built six in Japan as the Ki-20 heavy bomber, a type so secret that most Japanese had no idea it existed.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How big was the Junkers G.38?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Its wingspan was 44 metres and it was 23.21 metres long. It cruised at 175 km\/h with a maximum of around 225 km\/h, and carried up to 34 passengers on the second aircraft.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What happened to the two German G.38s?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The first crashed at Dessau in 1936 during a post-maintenance test flight; the test pilot survived and nobody was killed. The second was taken over by the Luftwaffe in 1939 as a transport and destroyed on the ground at Athens-Tatoi on 17 May 1941 in an RAF raid. Nothing survives.\"}}]}<\/script><p><em>Sources: NACA Aircraft Circular No. 116, May 1930 (translation of Zeitschrift des Vereines deutscher Ingenieure, 4 January 1930); British Pathe archive; Bundesarchiv.<\/em><\/p>\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\n\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\n\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/dornier-do-x-twelve-engine-flying-boat-169-passengers\/\">Dornier Do X: The 12-Engine Flying Boat That Carried 169 People<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/kalinin-k-7-soviet-seven-engine-giant\/\">The Kalinin K-7: Stalin&rsquo;s Seven-Engine Giant<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/tupolev-ant-20-maxim-gorky-eight-engine-giant-crash\/\">The Giant Soviet Plane a Show-Off Destroyed<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Junkers G.38 had a wing thick enough to walk through, so Junkers put passengers in it and let mechanics service the engines in flight. Only two were ever built.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":19637743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,666],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19638029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-history-and-legends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Junkers G.38: Passenger Seats Inside the Wing | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Junkers G.38 had a wing thick enough to walk through, so it carried passengers inside it and let mechanics reach the engines in flight. 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