hello guys at the end of WW1 Was there a aircraft designer the later famous Claudius Dornier.
He had designed an entirely metal biplane like his big rival Hugo Junkers did before him.
It was Named the Dornier D1 Falke,did someone having info about this very advanced aircraft?
A set of good pictures shall be marvelous too,because I want to make an art work about this plane
best regards T-50
A photo of the uncovered US Wright-engined aircraft (identified as a "D1") appeared in U.S. Air Service 10 (March 1925) and was reproduced in "Research CADCAM in the Aerospace Industry" by Kui Yue, 2003.
I have some info on this aircraft. It is from Czech L+K magazine, No. 8-1990.
The well-known Count Zeppelin’s airship company sitting in Friedrichshafen had two affiliated firms which built “heavier-than-air” aircrafts. First of them was Zeppelin-Staaken known for its giant bombers. Another was Zeppelin-Lindau, sitting in the town of Lindau on the Bodensee, and its chief designer was Claudius Dornier. Dornier was an enthusiast of full-metal aircraft made of duralumin almost completely. Though his main interest was flying boats, he designed land-based aircrafts too. The first was experimental V-1, built in 1916, which was a twin-boom pusher. In 1917, Dornier designed and built a two-seat biplane C-I and its modification C-II, and in 1918 a two-seat float monoplane CS-I. Any of these aircraft didn’t go to serial production.
At the same time when he worked on the CS-I, Dornier began to design a fighter aircraft, the D-I. Its layout was really very advanced for its time, because it was one of the few cantilever biplanes (like Borovkov/Florov I-207 from the late 1930s). The upper wing was mounted on the fuselage with four wide, profiled struts, without any wires. The aircraft was full-metal, with smooth duralumin covering (not corrugated like Junkers or Tupolev early full-metal aircrafts). It was powered by 160-hp Mercedes D-III engine and armed with two 7.92-mm Spandau LMG 08/15 machine guns.
The first flight of Dornier D-I was at June 4, 1918. Not only high officers of German air force, but also some pilots distrusted it because of “too modern” conception. Maybe for this reason Dornier D-I wasn’t an official contender during the 2nd fighter aircraft competition, which took part in Adlershof from the end of May, 1918 to the half of June. But, despite this, the aircraft was tested unofficially during the competition by some experienced frontline pilots. These flights were successful, but later, at July 3, a disaster happened. That day Capt. Reinhard, the JG 1 Richthofen commander, pulled Do D-I out from the dive at the altitude about 900 m. One of the upper wing attachment units destructed, and then the wing itself teared off. Reinhard had no parachute and was killed.
After Reinhard’s death, the new JG 1 commander was Hermann Göring. It was his first step to become the Chief of Luftwaffe. So, the Do D-I disaster influenced essentially into history.
It wasn’t the end of D-I, Zeppelin-Lindau built some more aircrafts of this type. Some of them were powered with 185-hp BMW IIIa engine. One of them took part in 3rd fighter competition in Adlershof in October 1918, but its performance was rather disappointing: first of onn, by maximum speed it placed only eighth. Heinrich Bongartz, ex-Jagdstaffel 36 commander and an ace with 34 kills, said about Dornier D-I: “It doesn’t have a performance of modern fighter aircraft, and the ailerons are controlled too hard”.
After the end of war, two Do D-I were transported into USA, where one was tested by the Army Air Corps and the other by the Navy. Another D-I was in Dornier factory museum and was destroyed by the Allies bombs during WW2. The Dornier D-I was an example that modern layout of an aircraft isn’t a guarantee for success.
If needed, I can scan the drawing in better quality.
Here is a better scan of the L+K Dornier D.I drawing.
Also technical data: Wing span – 7.80 m Length – 6.37 m Height – 2.53 m Wing area – 18.70 m2 Empty weight – 710 kg Takeoff weight – 890 kg Maximum speed – 201 km/h Service ceiling – 8075 m
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