Lufthansa Technik AG

Lufthansa Technik's roots go back to the founding of the new Lufthansa in the early fifties. After the four allies dissolved the old Lufthansa in 1951, a successor company was founded just two years later. At that time, at the western end of the Hamburg airport, the foundation was laid for the new airline's technical base. When Deutsche Lufthansa AG began its scheduled flight service on 31 March 1955, the first double hangar, able to accommodate three four-engine propeller-driven Super Constellations, was already standing at the Hamburg base. In 1957 construction of two additional hangars began. The workshop area was expanded. An engine shop with an electroplating facility and an office building were added.

On 2 March 1960 the landing of Lufthansa's first Boeing 707 in Hamburg ushered in the jet age. The Frankfurt airport was to become the future homebase of the new long-haul jets. Lufthansa began building a maintenance base at Rhine-Main airport. Frankfurt subsequently became the most important hub in Lufthansa's route network and the center for daily maintenance. In 1962 Lufthansa opened a test stand for jet engines at its maintenance base in Hamburg. It also built the world's first noise-protection hangar there. In the sixties, in addition to its own aircraft, it began servicing those of other customers. The U.S. FAA authorized Lufthansa's engineering division to service the aircraft and engines of American airlines. Even then Lufthansa’s engineers were developing their own repair procedures that attracted airlines from all over the world to Hamburg.