Dornier Do N

Dornier Do N
Type:	twin-engined military land plane
Design country:	German Empire
Manufacturer:	Dornier works / Japan
First flight:	February 19, 1926
Number of pieces:	28 pieces

The Dornier Do N was a twin-engine military land aircraft that was designed in 1926 by Dornier Metallbauten GmbH in Friedrichshafen and built under license in Japan by the Kawasaki Dockyard Company in Kobe with the designation Type 87 (Ka 87). The first flight took place on February 19, 1926; A total of 28 aircraft were built. A small team of Dornier employees and at times also Claude Dornier himself were in Japan for this purpose.

history

At the beginning of 1924, Dornier began planning a land version of the successful “whale” concept . A civilian ( Do F ) and a military version ( Do N ) were envisaged . The result of the whale cell was a significantly larger and heavier aircraft, the basic design of which was based on the whale, but was nevertheless redesigned in many details. The transverse step, the keeled bottom of the boat and the fin stumps of the whale were removed and a land chassis was provided. Compared to the whale, the empty weight increased from 3.5 t to 4.2 to 4.3 t.

Either two twelve-cylinder V-engines Rolls-Royce Condor  III or two twelve-cylinder W-engines Napier Lion  V were installed as drive . The BMW VI was added later as an alternative . Dornier apparently worked on the civilian design (work number 60) first, which explains the lower type letter “F”. In the course of 1924 - at the urging of Japan for the fastest possible procurement of a twin-engine bomber - work on this machine was likely to have been continued as Do N. The raw materials, profiles and other individual parts required for the construction were delivered to Japan, and Kawasaki wanted to procure the engines itself. Dornier also provided instruction and advisory staff, and Dornier himself also provided advice and also held lectures at the university on all-metal aircraft construction. In 1925 the parts were shipped to Japan, where the machine was completed and made its maiden flight in February 1926. After a short flight test, the aircraft was approved by the Japanese after just three days. Another 27 units with BMW VI engines built under a Japanese license were then produced for the Japanese Army Air Force.

In Germany, Dornier had meanwhile revised the Do F again significantly, which significantly increased the dimensions and weight compared to the whale. The two-part cabin should offer space for 18 passengers. In order to be able to operate the machine in German air traffic, Dornier submitted an application to the Interallied Aviation Guarantee Committee (ILGK) for the Do F to be classified as a civil aircraft in August 1925. On September 29, 1925, however, the ILGK rejected this application and classified the Do F as a military aircraft. However, the construction work continued. A total of six were planned to be built, but only one machine reached a noteworthy stage of construction before work was stopped. The reasons for the termination are not known.

construction

In contrast to the fabric covering of the whale, the supporting structure had dural planking. The main landing gear consisted of two large, individually suspended wheels that had rubber suspension, which was common at the time. The two engines were mounted in tandem on the structure and acted on large four-blade propellers.

The all-metal fuselage had a machine-gun bow stand at the front, and the engine compartment was followed by the fuel tank room. On the back of the fuselage was another machine gun stand behind it. A floor stand originally planned on the underside of the fuselage was probably not realized. The bomb load of 500 to 1000 kg was carried on the outside.

Technical specifications

Parameter	Thu F	Thu N
length	19.85 m	18.0 m
height	6.15 m	6.5 m
span	28.50 m	26.8 m
Wing area	143 m²	121.0 m²
Empty mass	5100 kg	4200 kg
Max. Take-off mass	8350 kg	6500 kg
Top speed (near the ground)	175 km / h	180 km / h
Cruising speed (near the ground)		140 km / h
Ascent time to 3000 m		40 min
Summit height	5000 m
Flight duration	6 h
Engines	2 × Rolls-Royce Condor III, each with 650/720 PS (478/530 kW)	2 × BMW VI with 450/650 hp (331/441 kW) each

See also

• List of aircraft types

literature

• Günter Frost, Karl Kössler , Volker Koos: Dornier - from the beginnings to 1945. HEEL Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-86852-049-1
• Dornier. A documentation by the Dornier company. Dornier GmbH, Friedrichshafen 1983, (private print).
• Claude Dornier : From my engineering career. Self-published, Zug 1966, (private print).
• Jörg-Michael Hormann : Dornier. Plant history and aircraft types . 2nd revised edition. Delius Klasing, Bielefeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-7688-2610-5 .
• Brigitte Katzwandel-Drews: Claude Dornier. Aviation pioneer. Klasing, Bielefeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-7688-1970-1 .

Web links

Commons : Dornier Do.N  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Thu N on histaviation.com (accessed May 15, 2013)