Rare Luftwaffe Trainer In The Air

Last Airworthy Bu-180

This super rare aircraft from the 1930s is still somehow airworthy to this day. The Bucker Bu-180 “Student” was a wooden, low-wing cantilever monoplane powered by a Walter Mikron II inline engine. When the Student was first introduced, its 60-hp engine only allowed it to reach 109 mph at sea level.

Bucker would only build 23 Students at their Rangsdorf factory in Germany, with “D-EUTO” being built in 1939 with S/N 2115. Only two of the 23 are known to have survived the destruction of the factory, with D-EUTO being the only Student in the world still in flying condition.

According to her current owners, the Quax Flying Club, D-EUTO was restored by a specialist company in Bamberg named Eichelsdorfer. To keep the previous owner and restorer’s significance to the rebuilding project, the club named the machine “Franz Hermmann” – the name of the previous owner.

Nowadays, this two-seat trainer is expected to fly in selected vintage flying events in Germany.