In 1928, German engineer and businessman Hugo Junkers traveled to the United States. His purpose was two-fold: first, he wanted to greet the aviators who had just made the first successful east-west transatlantic flight in the “Bremen,” and, second, he wanted to visit Henry Ford’s Detroit factories. The Bremen, a Junkers W33 type aircraft, was the most structurally advanced airplane of the day. Junkers was interested in the applicability of Ford’s manufacturing techniques to airplane construction. He saw civil aviation as an important part of the postwar revival of industry, and he sought to transform Germany into an “air-minded nation.” The Bremen’s German pilots, Hermann Köhl and Günther Freiherr von Hünefeld, were greeted by mass crowds upon their return to Berlin. From left: Edsel Ford, Günther von Hünefeld, Hermann Köhl, Hugo Junkers, Henry Ford, James Fitzmaurice