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Vintage plane to stop in Taiwan on round-the-world tour

A WWII vintage transport plane from Switzerland is set to arrive in Taipei today for a stopover on a round-the-world trip.

The 60-year-old Junkers JU-52 took off from Switzerland on Jan. 11 and flew over the Persian Gulf, India, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. The plane will fly to Taiwan from Hong Kong today.

A total of nine veteran pilots are flying the plane on the round-the-world trip, which will take 12 days or a total of 280 flying-hours.

The globe-trotting plane was one of the three transport JU-52s that served the Swiss air force during WWII, flying more than 120,000 wounded soldiers home during the war.

The plane was retired in 1982 but was brought back into service after Swiss civic groups raised funds and sought technical assistance from veteran pilots and engineers to restore it.

The journey is a challenging task for the German-made plane, which has no air conditioning system and had to be fitted with extra fuel tanks for the trip.

The Junkers JU-52, better known by its nickname "Iron Annie," was a famous transport plane during the war and after. The KMT government also bought one from Germany in 1935 to serve as Chiang Kai-shek's (蔣介石) personal plane.
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