Dornier Do X | The History Of The Giant 12-Engine Flying Ship
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- Опубликовано: 9 май 2024
- If you'd like to donate towards the Do X reconstruction project, please do so here: www.do-x-vision.de/en/give-a-...
The mighty Dornier Do X is the focus of today's video. Not only are we going to explore its history, but we will also learn about a project that is bringing this huge flying ship back to life. I'd like to extend a big thank you to Peter Kielhorn for speaking with me about the Do X Reconstruction Project!
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Recommended Reading:
Dornier Do X: The Story of Claude Dornier's Legendary Flying Boat - amzn.to/3Whcjf3
Vom Original zum Modell, Flugschiff Dornier Do X - amzn.to/3JAz469
Nowarra.H (1978) Dornier DO-X. Das erste Großraum-Flugschiff der Welt.
NACA Aircraft Circular No.109.
0:00 Intro
3:05 A brief history of Claude Dornier
10:14 Origins of the Do X
27:35 Design and construction of the Do X
43:50 Maiden flight and record settings
50:04 Modifications and plans for international service
59:20 Do X international adventure / airmail shenanigans
1:10:22 Financial troubles and a German Tours
1:21:09 Later years and final fate
1:27:41 The Do X Reconstruction Project
2:19:35 Additional info & recommended reading... 
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If you'd like to donate towards the Do X reconstruction project, please do so here: www.do-x-vision.de/en/give-a-boost-to-the-do-x/
F.A.Q Section - Ask your questions here :)
Q: Do you take aircraft requests?
A: I have a list of aircraft I plan to cover, but feel free to add to it with suggestions:)
Q: How do you decide what aircraft gets covered next?
A: Supporters over on Patreon now get to vote on upcoming topics such as overviews, special videos, and deep dives.
Q: Why do you use imperial measurements for some videos, and metric for others?
A: I do this based on country of manufacture. Imperial measurements for Britain and the U.S, metric for the rest of the world, but I include text in my videos that convert it for both.
Riesen-flug-boot is one of the typical German long words build out of a number of smaller words.
You can say "reason fluke boat" and you are very close to the correct pronunciation.
In German it is allowed to build words like giantflyingboat and it's even allowed to add more words like giantflyingboatproductionnumbers.
There was an airship-building contemporary to Zeppelin called "Schutte-Lanz". The airship frames were made of wood and arranged diagonally instead of Z's traditional ring-and-longitudinal construction. It wasn't successful as a company/design, partly due to its inherent structural issues and partly because Zeppelin effectively dominated the subject, but it might be worth an 'coulda been a contender' episode.
Excellent work! Many thanks for this! I remember my grandmother (born 1913) having told me about this behemoth of the skies. I don't think she ever saw the Do X, although she was in Germany at that time, however, I do remember quite well her telling me about the Dornier Wal aircraft.
Wonderful video =D
Have you looked at the Latécoére 631? It's quite an amazing looking aircraft that was like a French version of the Do-X (just existing a few years later)
@@erfquake1 In a planned video on early airships I will be discussing this :)
Hi Chris, the old fart from Switzerland here. You just made my day, week, month, year, decade and century. I live and breath this era of aviation every day. I live in Altenrhein and swim in the lake almost daily right in front of the factory where the Do X was built and flown. Thank you so much for this work. Great. Unmatched. Brilliant.
Do the 2 countries meet there?
Haha fart
Time for you to move on for the younger folks!
Oh wait . . . I'm 83 . . .
I concur - FABULOUS stuff
Oh man! What’s left of the factory complex?
@@cosmografia6960 You would be surprised. The buildings are all still there. You have to dig for them a bit, since there were several add-ons built since 1929. Today trains are built by Stadler Rail in them. Even the slipway that was used by the Do X still exists, in fact that's where I swim from, normally.
A two and half hour video on a flying ship? Well, I know what I am going to watch this evening then.
12,000 other people in the first six hours agree
I'm getting it next on flight simulator. The Bugatti 100P couldn't wait any longer after I got to see it in person.
2 hours 23 minutes? This is the best day of my life!!!😮
You are a serious plane geek😂! I’ll be watching too! Love it.
2 hours 20 on the DOX?! Sign me up!
One small quibble with the intro: The residents of Lake Constance were quite used to giant, buzzing flying machines. Any of the early Zeppelins were launched from a floating shed on the lake. Doing it this way allowed the structure to be rotated so that there were no crosswinds at the door and gave the them wide open approaches.
I just realized my grandfather lived in Brooklyn and was five years old when the DO X came to visit. I never got the chance to ask him if he remembered seeing it. Also, thanks so much for this feature-length documentary! The fact that one person is responsible for researching, writing, recording, editing, and gathering footage and photographs for this masterpiece is astounding. For FREE no less! Bravo, good sir!
Me: I. Need a Drachinefel length video to listen to.
Rex: hold my beer.😂
Drach could do a Fun Friday on this one 😊.
@paulwoodman5131 I mean...its technically a boat :D
@@randomnickify😂
My headcanon is now that Inspector Rex has retired, makes videos on aircraft, and has his person act has his avatar
Surly not Herr stockinger
Now I understand that community post from a few days ago! Over 2 hours on one aircraft! Bravo!
and there are three other videos of similar length currently in the editing process lol
2.5 hours on an interwar flying boat?
God bless you Rex!
Trying to imagine 12 radial engines running wide open for takeoff. Must have been impressive.
It's so cool that MSFS 2020 gives you the opportunity to do a "walk through" of such a an iconic machine.
Cost overruns, engines not putting out the planned power, sounds very modern indeed. Not a big surprise the company went bankrupt during the depression. You can certainly see the influence of the DO-X in the later clippers. Looking at the bow, I keep expecting to see torpedo tube doors, just reminds me of a U boat for some reason. Certainly an aircraft worthy of the extended video format!
At least they (hopefully) didnt kill the people speaking up on the problems.
More like; Anyone who thinks that cost overruns & engines not putting out the planned power are only modern problems needs to take a history course.
@@whyjnot420 Sort of "assuming" I'm unaware that it has existed as problems since the Wright brothers? Or just being snarky?
@@john_in_phoenix Making a viable lightweight engine was actually one of the things the Wrights got right before they lost their minds with patents and let the rest of the world pass them by.
Given that even the Wrights were flying gliders (and kites) that were of more or less the same design as the original Flyer, the entire world was waiting on some long promised engines at that point. (and since you can see the counterweight catapult that the Wrights used, power was obviously lacking.)
@@whyjnot420 Snarky in other words.
“…the better part of three hours,” Rex, you actually went under time on a video!
I am as surprised as you are, believe me 😂
If there was ever a plane deserving of joking battleship cannons being added to it, that is it.
Like the Russian faked leviathans floating around the internet...😜
at last, the Dornier super duper wal is featured, this is a good day
Absolutely 👍🏻
I will always appreciate the Kerbal like approach of Dornier's engineers. "Just keep putting engines on it! Anything will fly with enough thrust!"
What a fantastic aircraft, unbelievable it was in 1929! Thanks for the very informative vid, didn't think I'd sit through 2+hrs, did easily!
Even the cockpit looks like a ships bridge!
Yeah .I feel the bridge and bow anchor push's it towards a ship that fly's than a flying boat.
As a child in the 1960s, I built a kit model of the DO-X, so I've known about it most of my life. Wonderful to see some details -- I'm only 1/2 hour into the video. Thank you Rex!
One of my favorite old school mega-planes from that particular era, best of luck to the team who are attempting to reconstruct this 'Aerial Titanic" while we marvel it's immortalization in MSFS.
1:14:06 , I did laugh at the town name and you can't stop me!
It's a good thing they didn't stop in by Come By Chance.
Newfoundland has a lot of tiny rural towns with hilarious/ridiculous names! 😂
Not complaining *at all* on the longer than usual length of this video !
I am looking at my Dornier DO-X model in 1/144 scale by Revell which I was built almost 30 years ago. Its gorgeous! Thank you Chris for your outstanding work! Greetings for all you guys from Poland!
I absolutely loved this thing when I was a kid. Such a unique design that could only have happened in its era.
Oh my G O D!!
Two and a half hours of Rex's Hanger!!!
I am not worthy . . . respect!
reinforced concrete piles sound particularly uncomfortable
😅 very funny, nice one. 😀👍🇬🇧🏴🇺🇦
Darn... now I'm all hungry... ;)
That is a horrible mental image you have just served up. Well done!😂
@@yumazster 😜
You're the Sergio Leone of aircraft history, seriously. :D
Fantastic in depth video on the Dornier Do X, Rex!
I've been longing for this one and all I can say is, it's well worth the wait!^^
Cool! I love this plane! 2.5 hours? I'll need to do this over several days. So I'll leave a comment to feed the algorithm till I'm done
Attention span of a gnat? 🙄🤦🏼♂️
Just before we get into this video Rex I wanted to say that I love flying boats as well, not just the history of them but they also evoke a sense of style and grandeur, especially in the inter war years and post WWII, that is until the land based aircraft were being built in ever greater numbers and providing access to air travel for almost anyone, but not in the style and adventurous spirit of the flying boats, the “Clipper” for instance, what a way to travel, but unfortunately their days were numbered and very few remain, even in museums and even rarer flying condition, what a waste of there grace and style, but that, as they say is progress.
With this video being such an awesome length I think 💭 that my comment might be quite a length as well. I wonder sometimes why it is that we honour the famous names in aviation design and manufacturing, Dornier, Messerschmitt, Junkers, Tupolev to name but a few, and yet they were the same people who went on to design and build some of the most lethal aircraft of WWII and beyond, in effect the enemies of the allied nations or during the Cold War, is it just because of their brilliance or that we can ignore what their military designs were actually used for or intended for?. Personally it just comes down to their engineering brilliance, how do others feel?.
It's always struck me as such a shame that throughout the history of aviation, some of the most beautiful and best performing aircraft ever created were designed for the sole purpose of killing people. It doesn't negate their beauty, performance or impressive engineering... but still, it's a shame that such literally lofty goals were inspired in pursuit of such a despicable purpose.
Awesome video. I first learned about this plane when I read about it in "Teknikkens vidundere" (The Wonders of Technology) volume II by Edgar B. Schieldrop, published in 1935 (Oslo). Getting to know so much more about it, is lovely.
Thanks for another great video Rex. I know a lot of us appreciate all your hard work.
A deep dive on the Do X? You just made my day!
There are several RUclips films of a gigantic RC Do X. Not quite the real thing but an impression of what it was like. Well worth a watch. 😊
I’m watching this in about 20-min chunks and each time I manage to learn something new about this amazing machine. As a dedicated plane geek for about 60 years of course I knew of its existence but really nothing about its life. It definitely looks like the crew compartment should be described as the bridge rather than the flight deck.
Glorious pieces of work. These aircraft and your vid. It's easy - for me anyway - to view the DoX as one of those crazy early 20thC flying machines but it's good to go through the details and to realise this was a serious and capable esp for its time aircraft and was a genuine forward step in aviation
Rex, I love the Do X and Dornier designed some beautiful flying boats especially the Do 24 and 26 and the Do 24 ATT which I seen at Oshkosh. But it was just six years later that the Boeing 314 first flew which was essentially as big as the Do X and far out performed the Do X. It was relegated to limited production because of the war, but the 314 was magnificent as well. It had much better engines, the Wright 1,600 hp Twin Cyclone R-2600, the engine used in the A-20, TBF, B-25 etc.
I was always surprised that we didn't care enough to preserve at least one of the 12 Boeing 314 Clippers. Now, like the Do X, they seem mythical.
@@goatflieg Yes, according to records seven were parked at Lindbergh Field in San Diego, were all scrapped by 1950 and a single 314 was scrapped in Baltimore in 1951. Three were lost in accident, only one fatal. What a shame!!!
@@larryweitzman5163 I used to live in the Bay Area and visited Treasure Island a few times. There's a video here on RUclips called Treasure Island 1941 that features a Boeing 314 departing. Man, I wish I could have seen that in person!
@@goatflieg I lived in Northern Cal in PVF for about 25 years up to 4 years ago and I am familiar with Treasure Island and the Bay Bridge. I will watch that video. My number two son when he was about five took my large model of the 314 to school to give a talk about it. He memorized the wingspan, length, gross weight, capacity, engines and hp and so on for his talk. I still have the model in a display case. I alsso have a Wm. Phillips limited edition litho of the 314 in my aviation art collection. The Phillips litho shows a 314 going through the Golden gate with the bridge in the background. Coincidental is the large orange stripe painted on top of the wing is the same orange color as the golden gate bridge.
@@larryweitzman5163 Wow! I lived in the Bay Area for 24 years and up near Redding for 8 years before returning my home state of Michigan in 2008. Still love the Bay Area with all my heart, geographically... but glad I don't live there now. Wouldn't have missed my NorCal and MI experiences for the world, although I wish I still owned my small home in Cupertino, which is still exactly as we left it and now worth 2.73 million. My brother lives in Pollock Pines, just up the road from Placerville. Wish I could have seen your model!
Video as big as the flying ship.
Love this Flying Giant
Everyone subscribed should donate 100.00, please. It shouldn't take long to gather enough money. Great project and has ties to America and Germany.
Any relation to Jeremy Dewitte, Hero of Fallujah?
Welp... that's my viewing time all used up in one glorious vid. 🙂👍
Thanks to Flight Sim for all these unique aircraft ... still waiting for Boulton Paul Defiant ! :D
Well. Just what i needed before my huge Journey to NC.
Excellent video. Thanks Chris (Rex) for all your hard work putting this great piece of work together. 👏
Roald Amundsen also used the Dornier WAL in his attempt to reach the North pole in 1925.
It's amazing how fast technology was improving at this time. The sleek Boeing 247 and DC-1 had their first flights just four years after the Do X's.
As a young boy in the late 80's a had the luck the visit the Dornier Museum, there I bought my very first model kits, a Do-X and a Do 335 Nightfighter, those to planes have a very special place in my heart
My father grew up close to Altenrhein and told me that he watched the trial runs of the Do X on the lake Constance (which incidentally shows, that I am no young chick myself ...).
Love the longer videos thanks so much!!
thx for your work on this extrem long video.
you are the best. :)
"modern" aircraft structure is also not so different from ships. At Boeing at least, the vertical coordinates reference the waterline and the 787 is not designed to spend much time in the water :) it is made of bulkheads, frames, stringers etc so it was funny to see the same structure, (in steel), while on my way home from work on a ferry :)
Rex man, Ive only been subscribed for two months, and youve shown me dedication and detail unlike any other technical history youtuber out there I dare say you're even giving Drach a run for his money, if not past or tied. I hope you someday reach a million, you deserve it!
Amazing! Well worth every minute of it's long view. Thanks.
Can I make perfectly clear that the national pride was not exclusively German. We, the Swiss, were just as proud of this mammoth. After all, it was technically a Swiss company that built it. Never mind the connection to Germany back then, we still had quite a remarkable connection to Germany with Hitler in power. Sorry about that.
Big video for a Big Plane !!
16:00, just me, or at a glance does that look like a cursed F6F-based seaplane? That fabric cover on the engines be playing tricks on me.
Two hours on the coolest flying boat? (Well besides my personal favorite the BV 222 xD) sign me up!
Absolutely fantastic video! Repetition is the Fixer of Knowledge; one viewing won't be enough to absorb this much info.
Thank you so very much for this!
Just found your channel and subbed. Amazing documentary and great presentation. Loving the full length form
Awesome tale, thanks Rex. Was very interesting 👍🏻
Two hours plus of information o an aircraft that I knew existed, but that was about all. What a great way to spend the evening with your splendid video. Thank you!
Yay! A two hour extravaganza on one of my favorite aeroplanes ever! Thank you so much for the upload! 😊
The Do X was always one of my absolute favourite aircraft and I was generally familiar with its story but I did not realize all the intricacies and turmoil around it so thank you so much for this video!
Going to spend serious time watching this when I get home from work!
Need to scratch that "really huge flying ship" itch?
Well, Do X gonna give it to ya!
Rex you are amazing thought this was a 23min job until you pointed out it was time to put the kid to bed and settle in! Great work bud, wish I could have fed you all my books form when I was a kid, internet is not the same... 228 always reminded me of a baby Do X
This is a very underrated video in my thinking, very well done! Good wishes on the ship from America!
Hats off to you Chris - this is a wonderul piece of research and enlightenment. I was aware of the Do X but now realize I knew nothing about it! As a former engineer I now appreciate what a fine piece of engineering it was and the reconstruction project is a real bonus. I love to see projects like this so shall be following their progress closely. Thank you.
A superb documentary and historical document! A true labour of love. Well done Sir!
Very well created vid. Glad I spent the time watching it.
incredibly thorough documentary, a sheer joy to watch!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Looks like Saturday is improving
Now *that* was in-depth! Great work Rex, really enjoyed that.
Thank you for this wonderful program!
Ok, so I’m the guy that notices the weird stuff. The anchor at the bow just strikes me as hilarious! How much drag does THAT create?!
It’s an anchor!! The more drag, the better!! Maybe if Boeing hadn’t been such cowards while redesigning the 737 Max, they would’ve secured those door plugs to a windlass with some anchor chain?!? That way, when it blows out, you can reel it back in and market it to the public as an innovative new drag device. Oh, that? The co-pilot noticed they were over ur mom’s house. While he was pointing it out, the captain mistook “whoring” for “mooring,” (or perhaps he didn’t mishear it at all) and took it upon himself to drop anchor. Happens all the time. At this point, her services have become so indispensable to our aircrews that it’s pretty much standard procedure for crews who miss the feel of an open cock pit.
not nearly as much as various struts, bracers and completely vertical bridge 😜
I remember first seeing this aircraft in a book when I was a little kid. It was titled "the encyclopedia of technology" and it documented technological development from the ancient times till the late 90s. I wasn't really perplexed by the size of this aircraft, because the image in the book was rather tiny, but the impression of 6 engine nacelles with 2 sets of engines, and the ship-like shape of the aircraft with the circular windows drew my attention back there every time I opened it. As the years gone by I forgot about this aircraft, but as soon as I saw the thumbnail I immediately recognized it, and realized I never really knew that much about the history of this plane. So thank you for this video!
Two hours 2 comments.
Like most of the comments I have read I too love this D 0X. The size, the amount of motors, the luxurious inside it is a marvel of the time.
An hour and a half in and I started thinking of Pan Am's Clipper Service with Flying Boats (they stated small). The last aircraft they had built for it was the Boeing 314 Clipper. It is interesting to see the Wiki page on both the the Do-X and the Boeing. Their maiden flight were 9 years apart so you can see the changes that happened in 9 years of peacetime. The Boeing wasn't a small plane but the Dornier was bigger. Suspect Dornier would have killed to have the Wright R-2600's Boeing got to play with for the Do-X model. If things had worked out more than a little differently, an Adolf-Free Germany for one, you could see Dornier building flying ships for Pan Am Clipper service using Wright or Pratt & Whitney engines.
Well they didnt really fade into obscurity. They are incredibly famous in Europe. Its one of the first aircraft a child opening its first book about aircraft would see.
I've been to the Dorniermuseum last summer, highly recommend it should you ever be in the area. can't wait to see the DO X when they are done, I hadn't heard of the project before
The 3D visuals on this are fantastic. I always love seeing the period photos and video, but these definitely help to illustrate the insanity of this plane/ship
An excellent presentation Rex, thank you!
Just brilliant. Ireally appreciate your talent in this area. And the primary source-material, ie the photos , is astonishing.
Bravo.
Superb video. Congratulations. It's really refreshing to see well researched content, given all the sloppy aircraft-related dross that's been polluting RUclips recently. 👍
If I were a billionaire, I'd commission a giant flying boat instead of a yacht.
You're so real for that because I would do exactly the same if I had billions to play with.
I like your style. However,finding a berth at a suitable billionaires port might be tricky so fit more expensive folding wings. Also fuel. I know yachts are a bit thirsty BUT THIS WOULD HAVE MR BEZOS collecting change from in his couch. Finally, where’s the pool? No pool means no beautiful French, Italian or Jamaican ladies in bikinis, which should be a priority in any billionaire’s plans.
You’d be a modern day Howard Hughes, who has a great legacy if you ignore the ‘living in filth,alone’ ending.
I respect your plans for this. I’m hoping for an invite on the SECOND flight.
EDIT. Look up Ekranoplan- Caspian Sea monster. Might be a better place to start your Trillion Dollar plan. Bigger footprint for bragging rights. Stubby wings for “flight” (technically not flying but ground effect controlled lift which is VERY exciting.) probably room for an internal pool, minimising paparazzi intrusion. Pylons for weapons should the coastguard become too expensive to pay off. I’d even suggest you consider ignoring any patents given previous designers being ideologically unsound.
Nothing says Billionaire than a Caspian Sea monster. Name it ‘BREZHNEV’ for good luck.
Too noisy, an submersible Explorer yacht with helideck will do.
If she flies on 7/16/29 when the original was on 7/12/29 that would be the second significant flight to happen on my birthday. Apollo 11 was the first.
Great work!
I had to dig like a nut case. The auxiliary engine was a DKW 584 ccm two stroke engine, 15 hp, and was taken from the P 15 car. It was the first engine that DKW built as a stationary engine. Apparently it was very easy to maintain and the fuel was avgas with 5% oil added. It seems that avgas and the two stroke oil mixed better than with automobile gasoline back then. And it still exists to this day. At the Berlin Technology Museum this engine is on show. It was recovered from the wreckage of the Dornier after it was impolitely bombed by the British.
If I only had a couple million Euros to throw at the project and the team could see it through...
A beautiful video, Rex. The Italian Do-Xs looked quite the part with the very streamlined - and very Italian - engine nacelles. The interview with Herr Kielhorn was excellent.
Cheers.
Ive always wanted a high quality documentary on the do x now i finally have it, and its 2 hours 23 minutes at that
I'm not fully though the video yet (so I'm not sure if it gets mentioned), but my favorite bit of Do X trivia concerns the engines. They aren't quite far enough apart for the prop tips to clear each other, so each pair is staggered a bit from the one next to it. Which technically makes the Do X an asymmetric aircraft!
52:25 ... clearly visible here, for anyone interested
The design, creation and operation of the Dornier Do X was an astoundingly massive achievement, especially in the 1920s. Your extensive research into so many aspects of this aircraft and the equally massive work you put into creating this video is as impressive as the aircraft itself. It was worth watching every minute. Well Done Sir!
Apparently the Italian Do-X's were dismantled at the Dornier factory in Marina Di Pisa. Sadly the factory was removed in 2007 to make space for more housing and more beach access. Marina Di Pisa is a nice place, but would be nicer if at least one Do-X could be seen there.
Rex oh we missed you can't believe I didn't see this land or splash? Whichever floats you're seaplane always wanted a little gruman goose converted to turbo prop as a camper :) .
Now this is a documentary of DO-X magnitude! Kudos!
Hi from France ! Thanks you for this amazing work on this amazing plane !
Over two hours about my favorite plane. Heaven!
Thanks, this is education.
Thinking about your remark describing the boundaries imposed upon themselves by the troika is a trace of the very great possibilities they thought might be uncovered as the project proceeds. Likely, they were pretty excited and I imagine their brains as like a centrefold gymnast: sleek, honed, dexterous. So much tricky work and known unknowns to baffle them, even from the beginning.
And yet their intellectual excitement prevailed and they brought it to being.
All 3 thumbs raised in approbation.
Love those long video's 👍👍👍
This video is outstanding
😃👌Many many thanks for a fantastic evening for me with the joy to look at this video💗⚘️⚘️⚘️⚘️⚘️