The Dornier Do X

The Dornier Do X was a German flying boat that was the largest, heaviest and most powerful aircraft in the world when it was produced. It was conceived by Dr. Claudius Dornier (1884-1969) and took seven years to finalize designs and another two years to build. Image File history File links A Dornier Do X the largest seaplane of all times. ... Image File history File links A Dornier Do X the largest seaplane of all times. ... Boeing 314 A flying boat is an aircraft that is designed to take off and land on water, in particular a type of seaplane which uses its fuselage as a floating hull (instead of pontoons mounted below the fuselage). ... Claude (Claudius) Honoré Desiré Dornier born in 1884 and died 1969. ...

The Flugschiff (flying ship), as it was called, was launched for its first test flights on 12 July 1929. It was financed by the German Transport Ministry and was manufactured in a specially designed plant at Altenrhein, on the Swiss portion of Lake Constance, in order to avoid the Allied Commission, which forbade aircraft to be built in Germany. On 21 October, the plane took flight carrying 169 people consisting of 150 passengers, 10 crew and 9 stowaways, easily breaking the world record for the number of people aboard an airplane – a record that would not be tested for 15 years. Weighing 48 tons, the plane taxied for 50 seconds before slowly ascending to only 650 feet. As a result of the ship's sheer size, passengers were asked to crowd together on one side or the other to help the Do X make turns. It flew for 40 minutes at a maximum speed of 105 mph and finally landed on Lake Constance. July 12 is the 193rd day (194th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 172 days remaining. ... 1929 (MCMXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... October 21 is the 294th day of the year (295th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 71 days remaining. ...

The luxurious accommodations eventually provided on the Do X approached the standards of transatlantic liners. On the main deck were a smoking room with its own wet bar, a dining salon, and seating for 66 passengers, whose seats could be converted to sleeping berths for anticipated night flights. Aft of the passenger spaces were an all-electric galley, lavatories, and cargo hold. The cockpit, navigational office, engine control and radio rooms could be found on the upper deck. The lower deck held fuel tanks and 9 watertight compartments, any 7 of which could provide full flotation if undamaged.

The giant flying boat had a wingspan of 157' 5", a length of 134' 2" and a height of 33'. The plane had an all-duralumin hull with wings comprised of a steel-reinforced duralumin framework covered in heavy linen fabric, doped with aluminum paint. Powered by twelve 525 horsepower Siemens Jupiter radial engines (6 tractor propellers and 6 pushers), mounted in six tower nacelles on the wing, the plane was designed to carry 66 passengers on long distances or 100 on short trips. The air-cooled Jupiter engines were prone to overheating, and only able to lift the plane to an altitude of 1,400 feet, preventing it from making trans-Atlantic crossings. After completing 103 flights in 1930, the Do X was refitted with water-cooled Curtiss Conqueror 12-cylinder inline engines of 610 horsepower each. On the 4 August 1930 flight, newly fitted with the Curtiss engines, the plane reached 1,650 feet, a height that was deemed suitable to cross the Atlantic. Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium or dural) is the name of one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. ... 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... August 4 is the 216th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (217th in leap years), with 149 days remaining. ... 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

The Do X took off from Friedrichshafen, Germany on 3 November 1930, commencing a transatlantic test flight. The route took the Do X to the Netherlands, England, France, Spain, and Portugal. The journey was interrupted at Lisbon on 29 November 1930, when a tarpaulin contacted 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 African coast, across the Atlantic to South America (where the crew were greeted as heroes by the local German emigré communities), and north to the United States, finally reaching New York on 27 August 1931. Here the plane and crew spent the next nine months as the Do X's engines were overhauled, and thousands of sightseers made the trip to Glenn Curtiss Airport (now LaGuardia) to tour the leviathan of the air. The return trip began on 21 May 1932 from New York to Newfoundland, on to the Azores, and finally to Berlin on 24 May, where the Do X was met by a cheering crowd of 200,000. Friedrichshafen is a town on the northern side of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in southern Germany, near the borders with Switzerland and Austria. ... November 3 is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 58 days remaining. ... 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: Multiple unofficial anthems Capital London Largest city London Official language(s) English Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister Tony Blair MP Unification    - by Athelstan 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi   - Water (%) Population... Location  - Region  - Subregion  - District or A.R.   Lisbon Grande Lisboa Lisbon Mayor  - Party Carmona Rodrigues PSD Area 84. ... November 29 is the 333rd (in leap years the 334th) day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1930 (MCMXXX) is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Official language(s) English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ... August 27 is the 239th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (240th in leap years), with 126 days remaining. ... 1931 (MCMXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday (link is to a full 1931 calendar). ... Laguardia is a town located in the province of Araba, in the autonomous community of Basque Country, in the North of Spain. ... May 21 is the 141st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (142nd in leap years). ... 1932 (MCMXXXII) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link will take you to a full 1932 calendar). ... Official language(s) English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  Ranked 27th  - Total 54,520 sq mi (141,205 km²)  - Width 285 miles (455 km)  - Length 330 miles (530 km)  - % water 13. ... Newfoundland (French: Terre-Neuve; Irish: Talamh an Éisc; Latin: Terra Nova) is a large island off the northeast coast of North America, and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. ... Location Motto of the autonomous region: Antes morrer livres que em paz sujeitos (Portuguese: To die free rather than to be subjugated in peace) Official language Portuguese Capitals Ponta Delgada (Presidency of the autonomous government), Angra do Heroísmo (Supreme Court), Horta (Legislative Assembly) Other towns Praia da Vitória... This article is about the capital of Germany. ... May 24 is the 144th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (145th in leap years). ...

Only three Do Xs were constructed, the original operated by Dornier itself, and two others machines based on orders from Italy - the X2 (Umberto Maddalena) and X3(Alessandro Guidoni). The Italian variants were essentially identical to the original with the exception of the powerplant and engine mounts. Each craft was powered by FIAT A-22R (V-12 water-cooled ) engines, with the six motor mounts being covered by a streamlined fairing. Both plane orders originated with SANA an Italian airline, but the aircraft were requisitioned and used by the Italian Air Force primarily for prestige flights and public spectacles. After plans for a first-class passenger service were deemed to be unfeasible, the X2 and X3 quietly vanished; no evidence exists of their fate, but presumably, they were quietly broken up for scrap, probably around 1935.

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 nine days out when the plane's tail section tore off during a botched landing on a lake - Stausee - near the city of Passau. The plane was repaired and, after a few more flights, was flown to Berlin in 1934, where it became the centerpiece of Germany's new aviation museum. Lufthansa (Deutsche Lufthansa AG) is the largest German airline. ... Vienna (German: Wien ) is the capital of Austria, and also one of the nine States of Austria. ... For other uses, see Budapest (disambiguation). ... Istanbul (Turkish: , Greek: , see other names) is Turkeys most populous city, and its cultural, and economic centre. ... Old Town of Passau Passau (Latin: Batavia) is a town in Niederbayern, Eastern Bavaria, Germany, known also as Dreiflüssestadt (the City of three rivers), because the Danube River is joined there by the Inn River from the South, and the Ilz River coming out of the Bavarian Forest to the...

It remained on exhibit until being 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 plane of its day, a pioneer in demonstrating the potential of international passenger air service and one of the most impressive aircraft of all time. A successor model, the Do-XX, was envisioned by Dornier but was never advanced beyond the design study stage. RAF is an three letter acronym for: Royal Air Force -- the Air Force of the United Kingdom (see also Air Ministry) Red Army Faction (Rote Armee Fraktion) -- a German terror organisation Rigas Autobusu Fabrika -- a factory making buses in Riga, Latvia Rapid Action Force in India Računarski Fakultet RAF... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, the use of images on this page may require cleanup, involving adjustment of image placement, formatting, size, or other adjustments. ...

Operators

• Lufthansa.

Lufthansa (Deutsche Lufthansa AG) is the largest German airline. ...

Specifications

• Engines: twelve x 525 hp (391 kW) each Siemens Jupiter or 610hp Curtiss Conqueror.
• Dimensions:
  • wingspan 48.00 m
  • length 40.10 m ;
• Weight: 56,000 kg (loaded)
• Maximum speed: 211 km/h (at 1000 m altitude) ;
• Passengers: 150
• First flight: July 12, 1929

Bristol Jupiter engine The Bristol Jupiter was a British 9-cylinder one-row piston radial engine used in the 1930s and 1940s aircraft. ... The Curtiss V-1570 Conqueror was a 12-cylinder vee liquid-cooled aircraft engine. ...

See also

• Short Sarafand - largest biplane flying boat

The Short Sarafand was a British biplane flying boat built by Short Brothers. ...

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 1930's.

Michael John Moorcock (born December 18, 1939) is a prolific British writer of both science fiction and science fantasy. ... Parallel universe (fiction) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

External links

• Dornier Do X: Legendary Flying Boat