Dornier Thursday 26
| Dornier Thursday 26 | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Type: | catapult capable flying boat |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
May 21, 1938 |
| Number of pieces: |
6th |
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The Dornier Do 26 was an all-metal - flying boat for the transatlantic service, and should be used with a four-man crew up to 500 kg postal freight between Lisbon and New York transport.
The very elegant-looking Do 26 was often referred to as the most beautiful flying boat ever built. In 1937, Deutsche Lufthansa ordered three Do 26 designed for catapult launch , the first of which flew on May 21, 1938.
construction
The Do 26 was a cantilevered full-metal shoulder-wing aircraft. The Dornier-typical fin stubs were replaced by support floats in the middle of the wings, which were completely retracted during the flight. The good aerodynamic shape benefited the aircraft's speed and range.
The four Junkers Jumo 205 C diesel engines were mounted as tandem pairs at the transitions between the flat wings and the parts that bent onto the fuselage. During take-off and landing, the two rear engines could be swiveled upwards by 10 ° with the push propellers driven by long-distance waves in order to protect the propellers from the spray water. The hull was keeled, had two steps and was sealed off several times.
use
Lufthansa
Before the outbreak of the Second World War , three copies of this type were completed and two were handed over to Lufthansa as Do 26 A. The first Do 26 A (D-AGNT V1 Seeadler ) made its maiden flight under flight captain Erich Gundermann on May 21, 1938; D-AWDS V2 Seefalke followed on November 23, 1938 under flight captain Egon Fath.
Before the end of the test, the V2 Seefalke carried out an aid flight to South America. Under flight captain Siegfried Graf Schack von Wittenau, she started on February 14, 1939 in Travemünde on the so-called "Chile flight" with 580 kg of medicine for earthquake victims in Chile . Via Lisbon, where the take-off was successful on the following day despite the swell of strength 5, and Bathurst the machine reached Natal (Brazil) on 16th and Rio de Janeiro the next day, where the aid was taken over by a Junkers Ju 52 for onward transport to Chile . In just 36 hours of flight time, the sea falcon had covered 10,700 km (= 297 km / h). The crossing of the South Atlantic took place in the new record time of 10 hours and 7 minutes (~ 300 km / h). On the return flight she was catapulted in Recife on February 22nd from the Friesenland to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 4587 km away and reached Travemünde via Lisbon on February 28th.
D-AGNT V1 Seeadler and D-AWDS V2 Seefalke were taken over by Lufthansa, but due to opposition from the USA, they were not used on the planned route Lisbon – New York, but on the south Atlantic route Bathurst – Natal in the mail service. Eagles led from 7 April to 2 June, four round trips in addition to the Blohm & Voss Ha 139 through Seefalke from July 14, another four. The machines often took up to three passengers. On August 25, 1939, Seefalke continued under Count Schack von der Ostmark in Bathurst for the last German mail flight with 475 kg of mail and one passenger to Natal. She then left Brazil on the 27th as the penultimate German aircraft and flew by post to Bolama and Las Palmas. There was also a V1 sea eagle , which was about to be used again.
On September 19, the Spaniards allowed the Germans to repatriate the machines, which in the following days carried out their individual return flights via Spain and northern Italy to southern Germany.
The third aircraft, the D-ASRA V3 Seemöwe flew shortly before the start of the war, but was no longer in service with Lufthansa. Designated as the Do 26 B , a mail room was set up as a passenger cabin and the engines were Jumo 205Ea with 700 hp.
air force
All three Lufthansa aircraft were confiscated from the Luftwaffe in 1939 . As P5 + AH , P5 + BH and P5 + CH they came to the so-called Transozean relay. On April 7, 1940, the first mission took place to clear up a wide sea area in front of the departing auxiliary cruiser ship 16 Atlantis . From April 9th, the squadron with all available large flying boats - three Dornier Do 26, two Dornier Do 24 and three Blohm & Voss BV 139 - was used to supply the German troops who landed in Narvik . On May 9, P5 + BH V2 Seefalke under flight captain Siegfried Graf Schack von Wittenau was forced to make an emergency landing in the Efjorden (Ballangen) with 18 mountain fighters on board three Blackburn Skuas of the 803rd Squadron of the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal . Count Schack von Wittenau, the crew and the 18 soldiers were only captured after a bloody battle. One of the attacking Skuas also had to make an emergency landing at Tovik near Harstad because of the hits it received .
On May 28, 1940, the V1 sea eagle and V3 seagull were discovered by three hurricanes of the 46th RAF Squadron shortly after landing near Sildvik on the Rombaksfjord near Narvik and set on fire. All of the former Lufthansa planes were lost.
Three more Do 26 (V4 – V6) were built as Do 26 C for the Air Force with the more powerful 648 kW (880 PS) Jumo 205 D engines. The armament consisted of a 20 mm machine gun MG 151/20 and three 7.92 mm MG 15 machine guns . The V4 P5 + DH made its maiden flight on January 25, 1940 and came to the Transozean squadron as a sea dog while it was still in service in Norway . This machine probably carried out a reconnaissance flight from Norway to the Denmark Strait on June 22, 1940 before the auxiliary cruiser Pinguin left .
On August 1st, the squadron arrived in Brest with V4 and V5 (first flight April 24th). The V6 (first flight July 29) was still being tested. On the 16th, the first reconnaissance flight from Brest to the sea area west of Ireland took place. Since there was no catapult ship available in Brest, the machines had to make a water start at night with maximum load and were limited to a flight duration of ten to twelve hours and a range of 2100 km (instead of a possible 3600 km at catapult launch). The machines were occasionally used from Norway. The V5 P5 + EH cleared up the sea area around Iceland and in the Denmark Strait on 9 September after its catapult launch from the Friesenland in Hommelvik near Drontheim before an advance by the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper . The attempt to transfer the Ostmark, which had arrived from Las Palmas in southern France on September 19, 1940, to Brest failed when a British submarine sank the catapult ship off the French coast. In order to improve the starting conditions in Brest, the Friesenland was then relocated from Norway through the canal to Brest at great expense. During the first catapult launch from the ship, which arrived on October 11, the V5 P5 + EH crashed on October 16 due to engine misfires. All six crew members died. With only two machines, the Friesenland moved to the Gironde estuary at the turn of the year; the transocean squadron was disbanded and the machines were placed under I. Group / KG 40. After a few deployments, the machines and then the Friesenland were briefly deployed from Norway again.
From the end of April 1941, both machines were disarmed again and prepared for transport operations as Do 26 D. Such an application is known from the V6 P5 + FH . She moved from Travemünde to Tromsø in June 1943 and was catapulted from Swabia to the Holzauge weather station in East Greenland on June 6 , in order to evacuate the crew that had already been discovered and attacked by the Allies. With this and another flight on June 16, Captain Wolfgang Blume and his crew of three succeeded in evacuating all 22 station members and some sled dogs. The further fate of the V4 and V6, which were still assigned to the Travemünde test site in 1944 , is unclear.
Leftovers
The wrecks of V1 Seeadler and V3 Seemöwe were discovered in the waters off Narvik after the war. The wreck of the seagull has been removed, but the hull and wings of the sea eagle are still in place and an attraction for divers. Some parts of the sea eagles , including the instrument panel and a propeller, are in the Narvik War Museum; another propeller is located in the flight club in Bodø, Norway.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Dornier Do 26 A | Dornier Do 26 D |
|---|---|---|
| Type | transatlantic mail flying boat | Reconnaissance and transport flying boat |
| length | 24.6 m | |
| span | 30 m | |
| height | 6.85 m | |
| Wing area | 120 m² | |
| Empty mass | 11,240 kg | 13,050 kg |
| Max. Launch mass Catapult launch from the water |
19,000 kg 15,000 kg |
21,000 kg 20,000 kg |
| drive | four diesel engines | |
| Type | Junkers Jumo 205C | Junkers Jumo 205D |
| power | 600 PS (441 kW) each | 880 PS (647 kW) each |
| Top speed | 335 km / h at an altitude of 5000 m | 345 km / h |
| Marching speed | 265 km / h | |
| Service ceiling | 6000 m | 6500 m |
| Range | Max. 9000 km | |
See also
literature
- Jörg-M. Hörmann: Flugbuch Atlantik, German catapult flights 1927–1939 , Delius Klasing Verlag, 2007
- Graue, Duggan: DEUTSCHE LUFTHANSA, South Atlantic Airmail Service 1934–1939 , Zeppelin Study Group, 2000
- Manfred Griehl: Dornier flying boats in World War II - Thu 18 - Thu 24 - Thu 26 - , arsenal volume 171, Podzun-Pallas Verlag, Wölfersheim 1998, ISBN 3-7909-0628-X .
- Siegfried Graf Schack von Wittenau: Pioneer flights of a Lufthansa captain 1926–1945 , Motorbuch Verlag, 1981 ISBN 3-87943-764-5
- Wilhelm Küppers: Start free - Atlantic, longing - conquest - mastery , Hoffmann & Campe Verlag, 1955
- HW Laumanns: Typenkompass German airliners since 1919 , Motorbuch, Stuttgart 2008, ISBN 978-3-613-02975-0 , pp. 76-77
Web links
- Ten Dornier Do 26 photos
- A remarkable Dornier Boat. (PDF) In: FLIGHT, SEPTEMBER 8, 1938. Flightglobal.com , September 8, 1938, p. 218 , accessed on November 30, 2016 (English): "Four Diesel Engines in Two Tandem Pairs."