Dornier Do X variant
Dornier Do X Do X3 Alessandro Guidoni
The third and last Do X built, a twin of the X2 with twelve faired Fiat A.22R engines. It reached Italy in May 1932 as the civil-registered I-ABBN and then passed to the Regia Aeronautica. It never suffered serious damage, yet it was broken up alongside its sister once the cost of keeping it flying proved indefensible.
- 1
- Units built
- 66
- Passengers
History
The third and last Do X
The Do X3 was the last of the three airframes built and the second of the Italian order. It carried the name Alessandro Guidoni and the civil registration I-ABBN on its delivery flight from Germany — an Alpine crossing flown above three thousand metres — before receiving a Regia Aeronautica serial. Delivery came in May 1932, some nine months after its sister aircraft.
Identical but for the engines
Like the Do X2 it carried twelve Fiat A.22R liquid-cooled V12s in six tandem nacelles above the wing, enclosed by a streamlined fairing. Apart from that powerplant — and the glazed tail position added to both Italian boats when their use as bombers was evaluated — the sources describe the Italian aircraft as essentially the same machine as the German one, though they disagree on whether the Italian pair was slightly larger.
A short career without accidents
Based at the La Spezia seaplane station and later moved to other bases, the Do X3 spent its service on officer training cruises, naval air exercises and the display flights with which the Regia Aeronautica showed off its largest aircraft. Unlike the Do X2, it never suffered serious damage.
Scrapped all the same
That counted for little. Keeping a flying boat of this size serviceable, and the shore facilities it demanded, proved indefensible, and by around 1935 both aircraft were out of service and laid up at Marina di Pisa. In 1937 both were broken up, the damaged one and the intact one alike, and with them went the last surviving Do X airframes; the German boat was lost to a bombing raid six years later.