Dornier Rs I
| Dornier Rs I | |
|---|---|
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| Type: | Flying boat |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
Launched October 12, 1915, destroyed by storm after unsuccessful take-off attempts |
| Number of pieces: |
1 |
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The Dornier Rs I was a three-engine biplane - flying boat of the local Lake Constance aircraft manufacturer Dornier works from the period of the First World War . With a wingspan of 43.50 m, the Rs I was the largest aircraft in the world at the time. After unsuccessful take-off attempts, including a change in the engine arrangement, a foehn storm tore the aircraft from its mooring buoy on December 21, 1915 and destroyed it on a bank rock. The machine was called "ZWR" in-house, which probably stood for "Zeppelin Works Riesenflugboot" or "Zeppelin Water Riesenflugzeug". The abbreviations "FS.I" for "Flugschiff I" or "Flugzeug Seemoos I" were also used. Only later was the machine retrospectively called "Rs I" (giant aircraft See I).
history
In 1914, Graf Zeppelin commissioned the head of his research department, Claude Dornier, to develop giant flying boats, the structure of which was to be made of metal. Flying boats in mixed construction , on the other hand, were already being built under the direction of Alexander Baumann in the Gotha-Ost experimental building and later in the Staaken Zeppelin shipyard . Dornier had gained the necessary experience with the use of steel and the then new duralumin in aircraft construction during the systematic investigations of the strength of metal profiles intended for airship construction, which had been carried out since 1911. Development and construction were fully financed by the Zeppelin Group without a government mandate.
While the work initially took place in the so-called carbonium plant on the premises of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH in Friedrichshafen, the “Do. Department” then moved to the nearby Seemoos shipyard, where construction of the flying boat began in January 1915. Due to a lack of personnel due to the war, Ludwig Prandtl personally carried out the aerodynamic tests at the Göttingen model research institute . Towing tests to optimize the boat shape took place in the Royal Research Institute for Hydraulic Engineering and Shipbuilding in Berlin. Tests on the water began in October 1915, and basic knowledge for the construction of large flying boats was gained. A flight test did not take place, however, because on December 21, 1915 a storm destroyed the device. The project was then abandoned because reconstruction was considered too costly and the attempts made so far could not be satisfied. The focus was then on work on a successor that was already in development.
construction
In the structural design used initially, the middle of the three Maybach HS engines drove a pusher propeller directly, while the two propellers on the side were connected to the two engines housed in the fuselage via long-distance shafts. After the first taxiing attempts on October 12, 1915, speeds of 40 to 50 km / h were reached on the water on the 15th and 16th of the month. However, it was not possible to take off. After difficulties with the remote drive and the resulting damage to the upper wing, Dornier had all three engines moved in gondolas between the wings. They were connected to one another by a catwalk so that maintenance was also possible in flight. The taxiing tests in this design ended on December 21st due to an engine breakdown with damage to the wings and hull. The following night the machine was destroyed in a storm.
For the entire construction, steel was largely used for highly stressed components and Dural for less stressed components. The hull had a width of 3.50 m and was a framework made of transverse ribs and longitudinal girders. The upper part of the boat and the rear part of the tail girder were covered with fabric. The wings had steel spars, ribs made of duralumin and were covered with fabric. On the lower surface outside there were support floats, which were also made of duralumin. The tail unit was designed in a standard design (one elevator and one rudder unit) and braced to increase stability. The horizontal fin was braced against the vertical fin.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| crew | 5 |
| length | 29.00 m |
| span | 43.50 m (top), 37.75 m (bottom) |
| Wing area | 328.8 m² |
| payload | 2000 kg |
| Empty mass | 7500 kg |
| Takeoff mass | 9500 kg |
| drive | 3 × Maybach Mb IV with 180 HP (132 kW) each at 1200 rpm with two-blade pusher propellers |
| Top speed | not determined |
literature
- Heinz AF Schmidt: Historic aircraft . Transpress, Berlin 1968, DNB 458853623 .
- Günter Frost, Karl Kössler , Volker Koos: Dornier. From the beginning until 1945 . Heel, Königswinter 2010, ISBN 978-3-86852-049-1 .
- Michael Schmeelke: Dornier metal planes 1914–1919 . Scherzer, Bayreuth 2014, ISBN 978-3-938845-51-6 .
