Dornier Do X: The Largest, Heaviest, and Worst Flying Boat

Video from the channel Megaprojects about Dornier Do X, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 21:19. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

English-language documentary from the Megaprojects channel about the Dornier Do X, the luxury flying boat that sought to combine the airplane and the ocean liner. It reviews its design, its history and the fate of the three units built, and ends with the current project to rebuild a full-size replica.

Claudius Dornier trained in Munich and joined the Zeppelin factory in Friedrichshafen, where he worked on metal structures and created his own aircraft division. After the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles restricted German aviation and Dornier moved his activity to Altenrhein, on the Swiss shore of Lake Constance, with funding from the Ministry of Transport. He had previously developed the Do J Wal, with which the Do X shares the tandem engines and the sponsons. The first Do X designs date from 1924, and the aircraft flew in 1929 after nearly a quarter of a million hours of work. In October 1929 it carried more than 150 people on a single flight, after a 50-second takeoff run and a climb to about 200 m. In 1930, after 103 flights, it received 610 hp Curtiss Conqueror engines that let it reach 500 m. That year it embarked on a trip through the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Portugal, where a fire damaged a wing, before continuing through Africa, Cape Verde and Brazil to New York in August 1931. The Great Depression prevented it from being sold.

It measured nearly 40 m in length with a 47 m wingspan. A flight engineer controlled the twelve engines following the orders the pilot gave him by telegraph. The main deck had a dining room, smoking room and bar, with seats that converted into beds. The lower deck contained the fuel tanks and nine watertight compartments. After passing to Lufthansa, a 1933 tour to Vienna, Budapest and Istanbul ended in Passau when the tail broke off during a landing on water. The aircraft ended up in the Berlin technical museum, destroyed in an Allied bombing raid in late November 1943. The Italian X2 and X3 units were scrapped in 1937. Since 2014, a former Dornier employee and a volunteer association, with support from universities, have been working on a digital and physical replica. According to the video, by January 2024 about 2% had been built, and the goal is to finish it for the centenary of the first flight, 12 July 2029. The replica will not fly, but it will float and will be able to sail with an electric motor.