02/15/2023. Remarks by Johan Visschedijk: "The Mühlenbau & Industrie AG (Mill Construction and Industry Corporation) at Waggum, near Braunschweig, Germany, is often referred to as MIAG.

After 1933 the MIAG had attached an aircraft construction department to its company, which was headed by the Alten Adler and designer Richard Dietrich. (Alten Adlern (Old Eagles) were the 817 flying pioneers who had earned a pilot's license before the outbreak of WW I.) Dietrich had made a name for himself as a designer of light sports and training aircraft as head of his own plant, which later passed into the hands of Raab-Katzenstein and finally became Fieseler-Flugzeugbau.

MIAG became licensees of Heinkel, Arado, Junkers, Focke-Wulf and Messerschmitt, while an airfield was facilitated by the Reichswehr-Ministerium. During WW II the plant at Waggum became the main repair shop for the Messerschmitt Me 110, while the Volkswagen company at nearby Wolfsburg, part of the Junkers Ju 88 production, performed the type's first flights from the same airfield.

The MD-12 was two-seat trainer and exercise aircraft, with single-bay staggered wings of unequal size. The two-spar wing construction was of wood with plywood leading edges, the remaining areas were fabric covered. The fuselage had a welded tubular steel frame with fabric covering, the tail unit had a wooden construction, also fabric-covered. Powerplant was an 160 hp BMW-Bramo Sh 14 A seven-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, driving a two-bladed metal propeller.

(Johan Visschedijk Collection)

The MD-12 was designed and built in six months and first flew at Waggum in 1934. In terms of performance, the aircraft was scaled between the Focke-Wulf Fw 44 Stieglitz and Heinkel He 72 Kadett. However, the appearance of the Bücker Bü 131 Jungmann prevented a series order for the MD-12. Subsequently it was operated in Austria and then returned to Germany, registered D-EDNO it was still operated by a flying school in 1941."