CXXI
 |
Claude
Dornier
|
Claude
Dornier (1884-1969) was a major designer of German aircraft. Born of a French
mother and a German father, Claudius Honore Desire Dornier was raised in
Germany, attended school in Germany, and largely ignored his French roots. As a
young man he studied engineering and metallurgy, eventually going to work for
Zeppelin Luftschiffbau Gmbh., under the personal direction of Graf Ferdinand
von Zeppelin himself. Dornier provided von Zeppelin with much of the research
on early duraluminium (later duralumin) and helped perfect the strong and
supportive cruciform tail structure that was a signature of DELAG’s Luftschiffen.
When
DELAG began to expand its interests into fixed-wing heavier-than-air-craft,
Dornier led the way, eventually establishing an eponymously-named independent corporation.
Dornier Aircraft Works shared space with DELAG in Friederichshafen, shared
resources and workers, and shared testing grounds like Lake Constance
(Bodensee). Dornier was thus drawn into designing flying
boats, the first of which, the Dornier Gs, saw combat duty in World War I.
Dornier also built numerous War Zeppelins in conjunction with DELAG.
 |
The
Dornier Gs was a World War I-era flying boat. The Allies destroyed all the Gs
aircraft in 1919, shortly after World War I
|
 |
Claude
Dornier, who had been a protégé of Graf von Zeppelin, helped build war
zeppelins during World War I
|
Under
the terms of the postwar Treaty of Versailles, Germany could have very limited heavy
manufactures. This crippled DELAG, which was expressly forbidden from building
any more zeppelins. Wisely, Dornier moved his factories to Italy and Spain
(though his headquarters remained in Friederichshafen) and he was able to continue
to develop aircraft, all of which were civilian but most of which could easily
be converted to military use.
The
first and most successful successful Dornier flying boat was the Do. J, of
1922, usually called the Wal (“Whale”) which went through numerous iterations.
It was used for expeditionary flights, military purposes, and commercial
flights by sixteen separate countries. Germany used the interwar Wals to
provide international passenger flights to cities like Copenhagen, Christiana
(Oslo), Riga, Tallinn, and Memel (Klaipeda) after DELAG pulled its smaller zeppelins from
service in the face of the Great Depression.
The
last Wals were retired at the incredibly late date of 1950, meaning that the
Wal had served, dependably, for nearly three decades, all around the world.
 |
The
Wal was a surprisingly advanced aircraft for its day. Dornier set the engines
back-to-back in a housing above the wing and used huge three-bladed propellers
in his 1922 prototype. He also replaced pontoons with seawings or sponsons.
They doubled as fuel tanks and floatation devices, gasoline being lighter than
water
|
 |
Roald
Amundsen used a Wal during his 1925 North Pole expedition. The Wal could land
on sea or ice
|
 |
Wals
were amazingly adaptable, which is why they were used everywhere from the
Amazon basin to the Arctic sea. Here, a Wal is being sailed to safety after a dual
engine failure
|
 |
As
the Wal evolved, it grew additional engines (here, four). Four-engine models were called “Sperm Whales”
or “Super Whales.” The engine housing
grew larger too. On some Wals the housing actually had space for the flight
engineers to monitor the engines
|
 |
A
six-engine Do. 24, designed for air-sea rescue. It was, in all respects,
another iteration of the Wal. Dornier
claimed that 12,000 lives were saved by the Do. 24. It was also used as a
fighter-bomber by Nazi Germany
|
 |
The
Do. 26 “Sea Eagle” was used exclusively by Nazi Germany as a support craft in
seaborne invasions like that of Norway
|
 |
The
Graf Zeppelin and a Wal at Lake
Constance (Bodensee), near DELAG’s and Dornier’s shared headquarters
|
For
most men, the success of the Wal would have been sufficient, but Dornier wanted
more. Specifically, he wanted a flugschiff
, a flying ship that could carry at least 100 passengers in ocean liner or
zeppelin-like comfort across the seas.
 |
| The Dornier X (Do. X) lifting off from Biscayne Bay in Miami |
| | | |
|
|
|
|
| | |
|
 |
| A cutaway view of the Do. X |
Dornier’s
Do. X (the "X" stood for "Experimental" not "Ten") was the result. The largest flying boat constructed in the interwar
period, the Do. X carried 169 passengers (including seven stowaways) on its
maiden voyage in 1929. Her length overall was 131’ 4”. Her wingspan was 157’
5”. The Do. X had twelve engines arranged back-to-back in a pusher-puller
configuration. She had three full decks. She was furnished throughout in an
opulent style, including smoking rooms, lounges, and several private cabin
suites complete with lavatories.
 |
Two
views of the main passenger lounge aboard the Do. X
|
Dornier
was clearly attempting to compete with Britain’s Imperial Airways, with Cunard,
and even with DELAG in terms of opulence, and in that regard he succeeded. But
despite his desire that the Do. X be the largest, most powerful, most
far-ranging flying craft in the world with the largest passenger capacity, the
Do. X fell far short of its promise.
 |
Lady
Grace Drummond-Hay and Kurt Wiegand were habitual zeppelin travelers. They made
every one of the Hindenburg’s 1936
flights and the 1929 Worldflight of the Graf
Zeppelin. They also flew the Do. X, but not on its own much-publicized,
unlucky and incomplete 1930-1932 Worldflight
|
Sadly,
the thing flew like an anvil. The Do. X could lift 123,400 pounds, and she
could cruise at a comfortable 122 miles per hour, but fully equipped and
fueled, her load-to-tare ratio was a pathetic 27:73 (she was officially rated at 52:48, but this was without her machinery and interiors installed). Despite her engine array she was grossly underpowered and she strained to stay aloft. Most of her useful weight
was consumed by aviation fuel, which her twelve thirsty engines drank like a
stew bum on a New Year’s Eve bender. The
engines themselves had a bad tendency to overheat and catch fire in flight, and
her canvas-covered wing always risked destruction. Dornier built the wing with
access crawlspaces for the mechanics so that they could make repairs to the
engines while in flight. Touted as a safety feature, this really indicated how
unsafe the Do. X could be. Her LOA-to-Wingspan ratio gave her a nearly ovoid top silhouette, and she had a range of 1,056 miles --- certainly not enough for
transoceanic flight.
 |
A
Do. X passenger cabin. The couches could unfold, futon-style, for sleep
|
Dornier
wanted to prove however that the Do. X was
suitable for long-range travel, so he reconfigured the interior on one of
his three Do. X’s. He added additional fuel tanks, as well.
Aping
Dr. Hugo Eckener of DELAG, who had circumnavigated the Graf Zeppelin in 1929, Dornier announced his own Worldflight in
1930.
It
was hardly a Worldflight worthy of remembrance. The Do. X took off from
Friedrichshafen on November third of 1930. The planned route took the Do. X to
the Netherlands, England, France, Spain, and Portugal. The plane suffered the
first and most major of several wing fires while in Lisbon.Grounded
for repairs, she did not cross the bar of the Tagus until January.
 |
The
bridge of the Do. X resembled that of a ship or a zeppelin (below)
|
 |
The
Chief Engineer’s panel managed all twelve engines. The pilots communicated with
the engineer via telegraph as on a ship or a zeppelin
|
Winter weather, hull damage, and a series of other more minor mishaps and
equipment failures further delayed her flight. It took the Do. X until June of
1931 to reach the Cape Verde Islands, only 1,800 miles away (and three hours
flying time today).
From
Praia in the Cape Verdes, the Do. X hopped over to Natal in Brazil, a distance
of 1603 miles during which the Do. X rarely exceeded 100 feet in altitude.
Skimming just above the wave tops, the flying ship could take advantage of the
ground-effect cushion of air beneath it to aid its lift and save on fuel. The
few times she climbed higher than 100 feet were the few times she crossed paths
with sea vessels --- to avoid collisions.
 |
The
huge Do. X drew huge crowds wherever it flew. The crew conducted constant tours. There were less than 30 passengers on most legs of the Worldflight
|
 |
| The Do. X in Rio de Janeiro |
In
Natal and in Rio de Janeiro, the crewmembers of the Do. X were treated as
conquering heroes, due in large part to the enthusiastic response of local
German emigres. She spent a long time in
Rio, due mostly to an engine fire which necessitated extensive repairs. She
then lumbered northward via San Juan and Miami, reaching New York on August 27,
1931, nine months after leaving Frederichshafen.
 |
The
Do. X on the Miami waterfront
|
 |
The
Do. X crosses The Battery in New York. Claude Dornier had hoped to sell the Do. X to Pan American and other U.S.-based airlines. Juan Trippe, for one, was utterly disinterested in the Germans' flying ship. No one else placed any orders either
|
The
big plane wintered in New York, open to tours and undergoing replacement of all
twelve engines. It did not return to Berlin until May 24, 1932, via
Newfoundland and the Azores. It had taken 17 months to circuit the North
Atlantic, and the rest of the world remained beyond the reach of the Do. X.
 |
The
Do. X in the East River, New York
|
 |
The
Do. X passes the Statue of Liberty
|
Of
the three Do. X models, the first was the smallest and the lightest. Both the
Do. X2 and Do. X3 as they were designated were flagged in Italy (where they
were built) and they were used mostly as display planes. Both were scrapped in
1937. The first Do. X ultimately became
the last. She was destroyed in 1943 during an RAF bombing raid.
By
that time, she was a white elephant, and Dornier was building fighter planes
and bombers for the Luftwaffe.
 |
The
Do. X spent nine months in New York City at North Bay Field (now LaGuardia Airport)
being refitted for her flight home. Note that all twelve engines have been
removed
|
After
World War II, Dornier continued building planes. In 1984, Claude Dornier’s
grandson Conrado Dornier created the Seastar, a direct descendant of the Wal.
