Long Range Reconnaissance Flying Boat First flight: 1933 Dornier

In 1930, the design office of Claude Dornier, then located in Altenrhein (on the Swiss shores of Lake Constance), carried out the first major modernization of the Do J. The result was the Do.J II or "eight-ton" "Wal". Outwardly, the seaplane has changed little - the bow was slightly lengthened and its contours slightly changed. Now there were two passenger compartments in the fuselage: the front one for eight people and the rear one for six. The crew consisted of three people - two pilots and a radio operator.

The wing and horizontal tail acquired rounded tips, due to which, with the same area, the span increased to 23.2 m. The vertical tail began to look like a rounded triangle. A trimmer was introduced on the steering wheel. When installing the same BMW VI engines, the appearance of the engine nacelle changed: bulky radiators disappeared, replaced by more modern tunnel-type installations. Due to the strengthening of the airframe and the increase in the supply of gasoline (additional tanks were installed in the "gills"), the maximum flight weight increased to 8 tons.

The first Do JII took off on January 27, 1931. The maximum flight speed increased slightly - up to 225 km / h, the working ceiling decreased to 3000 m, but at the same time the passenger capacity of the boat increased significantly, which promised savings per passenger kilometer. Since 1932, the Dornier Val plant began to produce improved aircraft at the Manzel plant. The main type was DoJII a Bos with BMW VI engines, one copy was assembled DoJ II b Bos with BMW VII (700 hp) and DoJ II with Sas with Siemens Sh20 engines (licensed version of the Bristol "Jupiter" engine with a power of 540 hp). With). On the only DoJ II b Bos with the number D-2053, the pilot von Gronau in August-September 1931 flew List - New York through Iceland and Greenland, and in July 1932 he risked flying around the world. Von Gronau and his crew visited Iceland, Greenland, Canada, the USA, Japan, China, India, the Middle East and Southern Europe. For 270 hours of flight time, the aircraft covered 44,400 km.

"Eight-tonners" were also built in small quantities in Italy under the name MF.5 (by that time the plant had been absorbed by the FIAT concern and became known as "Marina-FIAT"). Italian cars were distinguished by the installation of Isotta-Fraschini "Asso" or FIAT A.22R engines. In Spain, CASA manufactured three DoJ II aircraft for LAPE. They were equipped with Lion engines.

The latest modification of the seaplane was the military "Militer-Val-33". Developed on the basis of an "eight-ton" machine, it had a wing span of 23.2 m with slightly rounded tips and BMW VIE 7.3 engines. The tail rudders received modern static and dynamic balancing without aerodynamic compensators protruding from the planes.

The Do.15 hull was typical of Dornier. Sharp V-shaped frames in the bow turned into a flat bottom at the step, and behind the rear step into the "knife" of the tail. The hull and sponsons were divided into watertight compartments. The two-spar wing was attached above the hull on inclined X-shaped struts and struts to the sponsons. A crew of four was envisaged: a pilot, co-pilot, navigator and radio operator.

The armament of the aircraft, which received the designation DoJ II d (Militarwal), later Do 16, consisted of three 7.9 mm MG15 machine guns, one of which was installed above the nose compartment, and the other two, each on its own turret, in the tail section. The rear turrets were placed asymmetrically, which made it possible to focus fire from both barrels on one side. Since the main purpose of the Dol5 was long-range reconnaissance, its bomb load did not exceed 200 kg. The crew consisted of four people (two pilots, navigator and radio operator). The first flight of the Do 16 took place on May 3, 1933.

Since the end of 1933, the new seaplane began to arrive (so far without weapons) in the Travemünde test center and other secret training units of the future German Air Force - the Luftwaffe. By the end of 1934, the number of Do 16s reached 16 units, and in February of the following year, G. Goering officially announced the re-establishment of military aviation in Germany. By September, the Luftwaffe formed a long-range reconnaissance squadron "List", armed with Dornier flying boats. In July 1936, this squadron was renamed 2/Ku.Fl.Gr.106, i.e. the 2nd squadron of the 106th coastal group. In total, the Luftwaffe received thirty Do 16s, after which the production of Dornier "Wal" aircraft in Manzel was stopped.

Do 16s remained in service with the squadron until 1938, when its began to be replaced by more modern Do18s, but some aircraft still caught the beginning of World War II. According to some sources, Dornier "Wal" seaplanes took part in patrolling the North Sea in September 1939. As training and auxiliary, Do 16 remained in the Luftwaffe until the end of 1940.

Photoо	Description
	Drawing Dornier Do 16 (Do.J II d) Militarwal

Bibliography

• " Die Deutschen Flugboote" /Fred Gutschow./
• "Dornier Flugzeuge Aircraft" /Aerospace Publising/
• Dornier "Wal" flying boat /Vladimir Kotelnikov./
• Wings of the Luftwaffe (warplanes of the Third Reich) /William Green./
• Dornier Do 16 Wal /Luftarchiv.de./