Professor Hugo Junkers was one of the great revolutionaries in the history of aviation development. Junkers became a professor of mechanical engineering at Aachen University in 1897, where he remained until 1912, after having invented and patented gas engines, heaters, and a calorie meter among other inventions. He went full-time into aeronautical work in 1912 at age 50, when he became convinced that the future of aviation lay in the development of all-metal aircraft of advanced design, such as flying wings. Unfortunately for Junkers, two years later war broke out and the only way he could obtain the necessary funding for his work was to develop warplanes, a task he personally hated.
In 1915, Junkers created the world’s first practical all-metal aircraft design, the Junkers J.1, known as the “Blechesel” (Sheetmetal Donkey), which first flew in January 1916. This was eventually developed into an armored ground attack airplane that was virtually impervious to ground fire when it appeared during the great 1918 Offensive.