The Ju-52/3m had its first flight on march 7th 1932 and the Douglas DC-3 had its first flight on december 17th 1935. The first flight of the Ju-52/3m was even earlier than the first fligtht of the DC-1 ( july 1st 1933). The DC-3 America's successfully answer to the german Ju-52/3m. The original Ju-52 had its first flight on october 13th 1930 and had only 1 engine, later this version was called as Ju-52/1m.The Ju-52/3m was operated by airlines in Europe (Lufthansa, DNL, Ala Littoria), Africa (SAA) and South America ( Lloyd Aereo Boliviano, Syndicato Condor, VARIG, VASP, Aeroposta Argentina, Ecuatoriana). The skin of this aircraft is the inspiration for Lufthansa's current cabin and image design. Thanks to T. Werner for this info.