Dornier Do X: Difference between revisions

Do X
Role	Flying boat
Manufacturer	Dornier
Designer	Dr. Claudius Dornier
First flight	12 July 1929
Primary user	Lufthansa
Number built	3

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Revision as of 13:39, 2 February 2010

The Dornier Do X was the largest, heaviest, and most powerful flying boat in the world when it was produced by the Dornier company of Germany in 1929. First conceived by Dr. Claudius Dornier in 1924,^[1] it took seven years to design and another two years to build. During the design process, a one-to-one wooden mock-up, the first in aviation history, was built.

The Do X was financed by the German Transport Ministry and manufactured in a specially designed plant at Altenrhein,^[1] on the Swiss portion of Lake Constance, in order to circumvent the Treaty of Versailles which forbade any aircraft exceeding set speed and range limits to be built in Germany after World War I.

While popular with the public, a lack of commercial interest and a number of (non-fatal) accidents prevented more than three models from being built.

Design

The Do X had an all-duralumin hull, with wings composed of a steel-reinforced duralumin framework covered in heavy linen fabric, covered with aluminum paint.

It was initially powered by 12 391 kW (524 hp) Siemens-built Bristol Jupiter radial engines (six tractor propellers and six pushers), mounted in six tower nacelles on the wing. The air-cooled Jupiter engines were prone to overheating and proved to only be able to lift the Do X to an altitude of 425 m (1,400 ft). The engines were supervised by an engineer, who also controlled the throttle. The pilot would ask the engineer to adjust the power, in a manner similar to that used on maritime vessels^[2]. After completing 103 flights in 1930, the Do X was refitted with 455 kW (610 hp) Curtiss Conqueror water-cooled 12-cylinder inline engines. Only then was it able to reach the altitude of 500 m (1,650 ft) necessary to cross the Atlantic. Dr. Dornier designed the flying boat to carry 66 passengers long distance or 100 on shorter flights.

The luxurious passenger accommodations approached the standards of transatlantic liners. On the main deck was a smoking room with its own wet bar, a dining salon, and seating for the 66 passengers which could also be converted to sleeping berths for night flights. Aft of the passenger spaces was an all-electric galley, lavatories, and cargo hold. The cockpit, navigational office, engine control and radio rooms were on the upper deck. The lower deck held fuel tanks and nine watertight compartments, only seven of which were needed to provide full flotation.

Operation

The Flugschiff (flying ship), as it was called, was launched for its first test flight on July 12, 1929, with a crew of 14.^[1] In order to satisfy skeptics, on its 70th test flight on October 21st there were 169 souls on board;^[1] 150 passengers (mostly production workers and their families, and a few journalists), 10 aircrew and 9 "stowaways", who did not hold tickets. The flight broke the then world record for the number of persons carried on a single flight, a record that was not broken for another 20 years. After a takeoff run of 50 seconds the Do X slowly climbed to an altitude of only 200 m (650 ft). As a result of the ship's size, passengers were asked to crowd together on one side or the other to help make turns. It flew for 40 minutes^[1] at a maximum speed of 170 km/h (105 mph) before finally landing on Lake Constance.

To introduce the massive airliner to the potential United States market^[1] the Do X took off from Friedrichshafen, Germany on November 3, 1930, under the command of Friedrich Christiansen for a transatlantic test flight to New York.^[1] The route took the Do X to the Netherlands, England, France, Spain, and Portugal. The journey was interrupted at Lisbon on November 29th, however, when a tarpaulin made contact with a hot exhaust pipe and started a fire that consumed most of the portside wing. After sitting in Lisbon harbor for six weeks while new parts were fabricated and the damage repaired, the flying boat continued (with several further mishaps and delays) along the Western coast of Africa and then across the Atlantic to South America where the crew were greeted as heroes by the local German émigré communities.

The flight continued north to the United States, finally reaching New York on August 27, 1931, almost nine months after departing Friedrichshafen.^[1] The Do X and crew spent the next nine months there as its engines were overhauled, and thousands of sightseers made the trip to Glenn Curtiss Airport (now LaGuardia Airport) to tour the leviathan of the air. The economic effects of the Great Depression dashed Dornier's marketing plans for the Do X, however, and it departed from New York on May 21,1932 via Newfoundland and the Azores to Müggelsee, Berlin where it arrived on May 24 and was met by a cheering crowd of 200,000. ^[1]

Final fate

Germany's original Do X was turned over to Lufthansa, the national airline, after the financially strapped Dornier Company could no longer operate it. After a successful 1932 tour of German coastal cities, Lufthansa planned a Do X flight to Vienna, Budapest, and Istanbul for 1933. The voyage ended after nine days when the flying boat's tail section tore off during a botched, over-steep landing on a reservoir lake near the city of Passau.^[1] While the fiasco was successfully covered up and the Do X was repaired, it was then flown to Berlin,^{[clarification needed]} where it became the centerpiece of Germany's new aviation museum in 1934.^{[citation needed]}

The Do X remained an exhibit until it was destroyed in a RAF air raid during World War II in late November 1943. While never a commercial success, the Dornier Do X was the largest heavier-than-air aircraft of its time, a pioneer in demonstrating the potential of an international passenger air service. A successor, the Do-XX, was envisioned by Dornier but never advanced beyond the design study stage.

Further models

Three Do Xs were constructed in total: the original operated by Dornier, and two other machines based on orders from Italy - the X2 (named Umberto Maddalena) and X3 (named Alessandro Guidoni). The Italian variants were essentially identical to the original with the exception of the powerplant and engine mounts. Each was powered by Fiat A-22R V12 water-cooled engines, with the six motor mounts being covered by a streamlined fairing. The Do X2 entered service in August, 1931, and the X3 followed in May, 1932. Both ships were based at the seaplane station at La Spezia, on the Ligurian Sea.

Italy's Do X3 *Alessandro Guidoni*, one of the three Do X's built.

Both orders originated with SANA, then the Italian state airline, but were requisitioned and used by the Italian Air Force primarily for prestige flights and public spectacles. After plans for a first-class passenger service (Genoa-Gibraltar) were deemed unfeasible, the X2 and X3 may have been used for training and transport flights (one rumor has it that a Do X even ferried troops to Ethiopia in February, 1935^{[citation needed]}). No evidence exists of their fate; presumably, they were quietly broken up for scrap around 1935.^{[citation needed]}

Operators

Germany : Lufthansa
Italy : Regia Aeronautica; SANA (state airline)

Specifications (Do XIa)

General characteristics

Crew: 10-14
Capacity: 66-100 passengers

Performance

Appearances in fiction

Author Michael Moorcock featured the aircraft in his alternate universe fiction as a symbol of power and style emblematic of the lost era of the 1930s.
The 1932 movie. F.P.1, features short historic footage of the flight of the Do X.
The 1934 movie, The Perils of Pauline, features historic footage of the flight of the Do X.
The 1985 Alphaville pop group music video "Jet Set" shows footage of the Dornier Do X.
A Do X used as a mobile weapons lab appears in Albatross: Wings of Death, an episode of Lupin III. The aircraft depicted has a twin tail and only five engines.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Jörg-Michael Hormann (2008-05-17), Anfang vom Ende des ersten "Jumbo" (PDF) (in German), Starnberger Merkur, p. 9, retrieved 2009-05-03
^ Dreamer, doers and daredevils, David Marshall and Bruce Harris,ISBN 1-74124-017-4,2003

External links

Dornier Do X: Legendary Flying Boat
Development history of the DO X Source: EADS
Do X aviation philately / air post and catalogue
Travel reports, interior accommodation and technical data
stereoscopic postcards
Landing of the Do X in New York, 31 August 1931 (requires RealPlayer)
“Ein fliegender Gigant besucht den Chiemsee” Traunsteiner Tagblatt
“DORNIER DO X: LEGENDARY FLYING BOAT” FLUG REVUE, Juli 1999, Seite 16
A flight aboard the DoX - 1930 (Bomberguy's Youtube channel) historical clips of the Dornier Do X
“Größenwahn hoch X”, SPIEGEL online, January 2010, with 19 photographs of the Do X

[SM-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Jörg-Michael Hormann (2008-05-17), Anfang vom Ende des ersten "Jumbo" (PDF) (in German), Starnberger Merkur, p. 9, retrieved 2009-05-03

[2] Dreamer, doers and daredevils, David Marshall and Bruce Harris,ISBN 1-74124-017-4,2003

[1]

[2]

@@ Line 201: / Line 201: @@
 * [http://www.flug-revue.rotor.com/FRheft/FRH9906/FR9906d.htm “DORNIER DO X: LEGENDARY FLYING BOAT” FLUG REVUE, Juli 1999, Seite 16]
 * [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7h1beFHjHno A flight aboard the DoX - 1930] (Bomberguy's Youtube channel) historical clips of the Dornier Do X
+* [http://einestages.spiegel.de/enwiki/static/topicalbumbackground/4757/groessenwahn_hoch_x.html “Größenwahn hoch X”, SPIEGEL online, January 2010, with 19 photographs of the Do X]
 {{Dornier aircraft}}

v t e Dornier and Zeppelin-Lindau aircraft
Zeppelin-Lindau 1914-1919	Rs.I Rs.II Rs.III Rs.IV CL.I CL.II CS.I D.I Gs.I Gs.II V 1
Dornier designations 1919-1933	Do A Do B Do C Do D Do E Do F Do G (project) Do H Do J Do K Do L Do N Do O Do P Do Q Do R Do S Do T Do U Do V Do X Do Y Delphin Falke Komet Libelle Merkur Spatz Wal
RLM designations 1933-1945	Do 10 Do 11 Do 12 Do 13 Do 14 Do 15 Do 16 Do 17 (Operational history) Do 18 Do 19 Do 20 Do 22 Do 23 Do 24 Do 25 Do 26 Do 29 Do 212 Do 214 Do 215 Do 216 Do 217 Do 317 Do 318 Do 335 Do 417 Do 435 Do 635 P.59 P.85 P.174 P.184 P.192 P.231 P.232 P.238 P.247 P.252 P.254 P.256 P.273 P.1075
Dornier designations post-1945	Do 24 Do 25 Do 27 Do 28 Do 29 Do 31 Do 32 Do 32K Do 34 128 Do 131 Do 132 228 Do 231 328 328JET 428 528 728JET 928JET Aerodyne Alpha Jet Projekt 621 Seastar S-Ray 007
See also Claude Dornier and Dornier Museum Friedrichshafen

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