German V/STOL transport/passenger projects

overscan (PaulMM)

overscan (PaulMM)

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Some very interesting VSTOL projects were designed in Germany.

MBB BO-140

A tiltwing transport, with civil (Z) and military (M) versions.

4 x GE1-S1-1T turboshaft engines each developing 11,400shp and driving 8.24m diameter blades.

BO-140Z could carry 80 passengers at 84cm seat pitch.
BO-140M could carry 90 troops, light vehicles, or up to 6 463L pallets

Wing span: 35.4m
Length overall: 27m
Max diameter of fuselage: 3.76m
Height: 10.2m (Z), 10m (M)
Wing area: 129.2 sq m
Empty weight: 33880kg (Z) 33300kg (M)
Max VTOL payload: 8,750kg (Z) 11000kg (M)
Max STOL payload: 21000kg
Max VTOL weight: 48700kg (Z) 51000kg (M)
48700kg (Z) 62500kg (M)
Cruise speed: 788km/h at 9,150m
Econ cruise speed: 685kh/h at 9,150m
Ceiling: 14,750m (Z) 13800m (M)
Range with max VTOL payload: 800km
Ferry Range: 3,380km (Z) 3,750km (M)
 

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The magnificiently restored cockpit of the Do-31 exhibited at the Flugwerft Schleißheim:
 

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http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchive/View/1969/1969%20-%203219.html
http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchive/View/1971/1971%20-%201554.html

Dornier reveals VTOL transport project

DETAILED DRAWINGS of the Dornier Do231—one of the three VTOL transport projects announced by German aircraft manufacturers recently (Flight. November 13, page 723)—have now been released. Based on the company's experimental Do31 prototypes, and with similar podded wingmounted lift engines and separate underwing propulsion engines, the Do231 is designed to carry 80 to 100 passengers.

Proposed powerplants are two Rolls-Royce RB.220 advanced technology turbofans of about 23.8701b rated thrust for propulsion, and no fewer than 12 RB.202 lift engines (of 13,050lb approx. rated thrust) which appear to be compact units with a fan diameter almost double their (axial) length. The wing pods each house four of these latter units, and pairs of additional RB.202s are mounted in the nose and rear fuselage.

All the lift engines tilt between 30 forward and 10° aft. This Dornier project and the other two VTOL transport designs, the Messerschmitt-Bolkow-Blohm Bo 140 and the Hamburger Flugzeugbau Division HFB600 Vertibus. have been submitted for a Federal Defence Ministry design competition which calls for an 80/100-seat VTOL civil/military transport available for service in the late 1970s. Both Lufthansa and the Luftwaffe have been called upon to state their requirements for such a design. Eastern Air Lines recently held a V/STOL briefing and the Do231 is one of the designs they have under consideration.

Nose and tail intakes would open respectively just forward of the pilot's windscreen and—intriguingly—on both sides of the base of the fin and rudder. An APU is apparently fitted in the tail cone. Both wing and tailplane of the Do231 have marked anhedral and the wing centre section sweepback is about 28 deg at quarter chord. Outboard of the lift pods the wing sweep is reduced to about 23 deg. The nose and main undercarriage units are all twin-wheel bogies, the main legs retracting into large underfuselage fairings.

The Do231M military version has a tandem mainwheel undercarriage, with bigger tyres, and a deeper rear fuselage with freight loading doors which would open when the lift engines (raised into the roof in this version) were running. Wing span of the Do231 is 85ft 4in (26m); overall length, 118ft 9in (36.2m): and overall height, 31ft 4in (9.55m). Tile wing area is 1.290 sq ft (120 sq m) and aspect ratio 5.63. Both the civil and military versions will have a maximum take-off weight of 129,000lb and will carry a payload of about 22,000lb. Cruising speed is 485kt, rate of climb at sea level slightly better than 100ft/min and service ceiling 36,400ft. The wing has double-slotted flaps, ailerons and spoilers, and the centre section is built as an integral tank with capacity for nearly 30,000lb of fuel. An alternative STOL version of the Do231 with six to eight lift engines would span 103ft 4in.
Click to expand...

The winner of the joint German civil/military V/Stol transport competition, the Dornier 231, is now moribund. Doubts about the future of Rolls-Royce new projects, such as the RB.202 lift engines, are not the least of Germany's worries
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http://www.flightglobal.com/PDFArchive/View/1968/1968%20-%200743.html

HFB Fan lift (transport? airliner?), seems different to HFB 600
 

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Many thanks Mr Bond,

The original VSTOL G.222 it is also included in that Flight profiles page.

The CASA Ju-52 looks anachronic with the rest of the aircraft. I feel a bit ashamed thinking about that. :'(
 
Interesting feature in photo of the Do 31 model are the outward canted
liftengine pods, to prevent re-circulation. Haven't seen this in other drawings
or photos before .
 
Left: 3 view, military Do.131; above, 3 view, civil Do P378-3; below: model, Do.131B.

In early-1960s Dowty Group, in partnership with Liebherr, was working, on flying controls and engine management, on >30 FRG V/STOL projects. History was that largely-US funding had put FRG aero-manufacture in business, 1957-59; design/development became a Govt. priority and they picked on V/STOL as a niche not already dominated by US. Kestrel Tripartite Evaluation Sqdn. followed. NATO Basic Military Requirements 3 (Strike) and 4 (Transport) were issued in support of these ambitions, and well-funded from 1958 by US' (Paris-based) US Mutual Weapons Development Program, which also funded 75% of Pegasus. The simple logic was early loss of long runways. Why they thought they could sell V/STOL tickets to pax defeats me.

As we all know, F-J Strauss caused runway-hugging F-104G to be taken; NATO in Committee (but with cash only FRG/Italy) chose autobahn-compatible G-91. By 1967 NKF-75-studies were taking the autobahn, not V/STOL route, and that's what the F-104G Users Group invited UK/France to join in June,1968. France, spurned on Mirage V-notions, abandoned them for Mirage 2000; Luftwaffe and Bundesmarine/UK/It took Tornado, Canada CF-18, Belg/Neth F-16. Somehow, runways became tenable, again.
 
:)
 

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I was in Flugwert Oberschleissheim, the side department of Deutsche Museum of München which has all the airplane and space stuff and there this huge monstrosity that is Do 31 stood in all its glory.
Also a VTOL fighter, lots of data and models. There's a problem with photos though, the museum terms said you cannot distribute them or upload to the internet. So I can answer questions at least and maybe upload some thumbnails of a general view of what was shown at the museum so you can judge if you want to go.
I'll post about the other stuff in the more relevant threads.
 
Give the designation, and I'm sure you can find pics already on the net. Theres a fair few pics from the museum posted on flickr & elsewhere. There's the VAK 191B there I believe?
 
overscan said:
There's the VAK 191B there I believe?
Click to expand...

Yes, the VAK191B is exposed just under the Do31 left wing, along with the Dornier Aerodyne.
 

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From the "Bilder-Chronik HFB, 1955-69" to more iterations of the HFB 570
and the STOL and VTOL versions of the HFB 323:
 

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Dornier Do 31 cutaway.

Source: Ye. Ruzhitsky. European VTOL aicraft. - Moscow, Astrel/AST, 2000 (ISBN 5-271-00863-0, ISBN 5-17-002848-2). - P.78
 

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nice Video about DO-31 Tests
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5yzzS0PnG8


anecdote of a acquaintances of me (he a retire Bavarian police officer)
He work at time at Dornier for so called "Objektschutz"
after work some engineers take the Hover rig and hover cross country.
and take along some Colleges, dropping off them at there Homes
Click to expand...

here a Do-31 E1 is move into Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen
note how low the ceiling is...
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBrZi2oEOx0
 
Last edited:
Three-view drawing of MBB Bo 140.

Artist's impression of civilian MBB Bo 140.

Sources:
http://www.aiaa.org/tc/vstol/unbuilt/
Streit, Kurt W. "Around the Vertical World - Germany" Vertical World. November 1968: 61-62.
"World Air News" Air Pictorial. January 1970: 10-11.
Luftfahrttechnik, Raumfahrttechnik Band 16 (1970): 8-15. West Germany.
The V/STOL Encyclopedia Series: Volume 1 Germany 16 July 2001.
 

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Artist's impression of Bo T17.

Sources:
Sources:
http://www.aiaa.org/tc/vstol/unbuilt/
Streit, Kurt W. "Around the Vertical World - Germany" Vertical World. November 1968: 61-62.
"World Air News" Air Pictorial. January 1970: 10-11.
Luftfahrttechnik, Raumfahrttechnik Band 16 (1970): 8-15. West Germany.
The V/STOL Encyclopedia Series: Volume 1 Germany 16 July 2001.
 

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A good point, Scott. Perhaps a simple link would suffice and prevent duplication of the work of several forum members in building that site.
 
overscan said:
A good point, Scott. Perhaps a simple link would suffice and prevent duplication of the work of several forum members in building that site.
Click to expand...

Most the aircraft on the AIAA Unbuilt V/STOL Concepts web page are already documented in the Secret Projects forum. I did not intend to duplicate their site, just add the ones that were missing.
 
Dear Boys and Girls, here is a contemporary survey of some strange German ADAV (VTOL) designs in French; they are "projects", but they aren't "secret"......

The article comes from the 15th December 1969 issue of Aviation Magazine International......

Terry (Caravellarella)
 

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Fascinating topic! Those German VTOLs certainly look very distinct and nice!
 
Orionblamblam said:
Triton said:
http://www.aiaa.org/tc/vstol/unbuilt/
Click to expand...

I gotta ask... with all due respect, and with the luvajeebus in my heart... are you going to post *all* of that AIAA page here?
Click to expand...

overscan said:
A good point, Scott. Perhaps a simple link would suffice and prevent duplication of the work of several forum members in building that site.
Click to expand...

I understand your points, but the AIAA page beginn to show some 404 or missing picture
it better that some of rare varieties of VTOL on AIAA page, are safeguarded in this forum
 
Re: Dornier Do-231 VTOL airliner project......

Dear Boys and Girls, here is an article in French about the Dornier Do-231 100 passenger VTOL airliner "project"......

The article comes from the 1st December 1969 isue of Aviation Magazine International......

Terry (Caravellarella)
 

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