Do H Falke | |
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The WP-1 under test with the US Navy in about 1923 | |
Role | Fighter |
Manufacturer | Dornier |
Designer | Claudius Dornier |
First flight | 1922 |
Primary user | United States Navy |
Number built | Five[1] |
The Dornier Do H Falke was a German single-seat fighter designed by Claudius Dornier and built by Dornier Flugzeugwerke. Although an advanced design for its time, being evaluated by the United States Navy as the Wright WP-1, it did not go into production.[1]
Development[]
The company started to design a prototype fighter in the early 1920s based on earlier wartime designs like the Zeppelin-Lindau D.I. It was an all-metal high-wing cantilever monoplane, with the wing above the fuselage on four small struts. It had a conventional cantilever tail unit and a fixed tailskid landing gear. The pilot had an open cockpit just behind the trailing edge of the wing. The aircraft was powered by a Hispano-Suiza piston engine located in the nose. Two aircraft were built by the Swiss subsidiary of Dornier and three by S.D.C.M.P. in Italy,[1] to avoid restrictions on military aircraft production in Germany.[2] It first flew on 1 November 1922, but failed to go into production. One of the Falkes was converted to a floatplane in 1923, powered by a 261 kW (350 hp) BMW IVa V-12 engine, as the Dornier Seefalke.
One Seefalke was shipped to the United States of America by the Wright Aeronautical Company who fitted it with a licence-built Wright-Hisso H-3 engine. It was evaluated by the United States Navy with the designation Wright WP-1.[2] It performed well, but the Navy considered the monoplane fighter too advanced for its needs.[1]
Operators[]
Specifications (Dornier-Wright WP-1)[]
Data from The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985), 1985, Orbis Publishing, Page 1480
General characteristics
- Crew: One
- Length: 7.43 m (24 ft 4⅓ in)
- Wingspan: 10 m (32 ft 9¾ in)
- Height: 2.66 m (8 ft 8¾ in)
- Wing area: 20 m2 (215.29 ft2)
- Empty weight: 825 kg (1,819 lb)
- Gross weight: 1,213 kg (2,674 lb)
- Powerplant: One × Wright-Hisso H-3 V-8 piston engine, 239 kW (320 hp) each
Performance
- Maximum speed: 261 km/h (162 mph)
- Range: 350 km (217 miles)
See also[]
References[]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dornier aircraft. |
- Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Dornier H Falke". Germany. http://histaviation.com/Dornier_H_Falke.html. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
- Bibliography
- The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft, (Part Work 1982-1985), Orbis Publishing
- Andrade, John. U.S. Military Aircraft Designations and Serials since 1909, Midland Counties Publications, 1979, ISBN 0-904597-22-9.
- Swanborough, Gordon and Bowers, Peter M. United States Navy Aircraft since 1911. London: Putnam. Second Edition, 1976. ISBN 0-370-10054-9.
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The original article can be found at Dornier Do H and the edit history here.