 When
the Do-X was built, she was by far the largest airplane in the world and
created quite a stir. Technically, she was one solution to enlarge the
capacity of airplanes and her one-hour flight over the Lake Constance with
169 passengers on board caused a sensation in 1929. Initial studies were
carried out as early as 1924, and from 1926 onwards, the project was well
in ist tracks. Assembly started in december 1927 and the maiden flight
took place on july 13th, 1929. 
The Do-X had three decks, the uppermost serving for cockpit, engine control room, engineer’s room and wireless‘ room. On the main deck, passengers, baggage and freight were housed. On the lower deck were the fuel tanks and auxiliary equipment. Since the engines with 385 KW were relatively weak, the airplane could not rise above 420 m above ground (1300ft). Later, she was equipped with twelve watercooled engines of 440KW each.  On
november 5th, 1930, the Do-X started a long-range flight to Africa, South
and North America. After covering 45000km (28000miles) she returned to
Germany in may 1932, landing on the Müggelsee near Berlin. With this
feat, the german aircraft industry thought to have proven her leading role.But
even with a maximum of propaganda, the Do-X never served in a commercial
function. The atlantic flight hadn’t been without hitches, and despite
the technical and marketing success, buyers weren’t exactly crowding at
Claude Dornier’s works.  The
Do-X ended at the "Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt", the german Farnborough
in Berlin-Adlershof.
The Do-X epitomised Dorniers flying boats of the much more successful Wal class, and, being intended for trans-atlantic traffic, offered luxuries never seen before in commercial flying, including persian rugs. The size and range of the aircraft attracted military interest. The german Navy funded trials for long-range reconnaissance and torpedo bomber functions. In 1931, Italy ordered 2 Do-X with FIAT engines for trans-mediterranean connections.  This
was never put into being, so these aircraft, named Umberto Madalena and
Alessandro Guidoni, served as super-bombers with the italian air force.
The original Do-X was destroyed by an air raid during WWII.
Apparently the Do-X was too far ahead of ist time. Only in 1938 Dornier found the Lufthansa’s interest for a trans-atlantic flying boat again. |
