Dornier Do H

Do H Falke
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

 United States

Specifications (Dornier-Wright WP-1)

Data from The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985), 1985, Orbis Publishing, Page 1480

General characteristics

Performance

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dornier aircraft.


Related lists

References

Notes
  1. 1 2 3 4 "Dornier H Falke". Germany. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
  2. 1 2 Swanborough and Bowers 1976, p. 496.
Bibliography
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