The Dornier Do 231 was a
VTOL
A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-win ...
transport aircraft project developed by
Dornier.
Design and development
The Do 231 was a result of a design competition, conducted in the early 1970s by the
German Federal Ministry of Economics, to create a 100-person VTOL aircraft. Based on the earlier
Do 31, the Do 231 was to have shoulder-mounted cantilever
swept wing
A swept wing is a wing that angles either backward or occasionally forward from its root rather than in a straight sideways direction.
Swept wings have been flown since the pioneer days of aviation. Wing sweep at high speeds was first investigate ...
s and a
T-tail
A T-tail is an empennage configuration in which the tailplane is mounted to the top of the fin. The arrangement looks like the capital letter T, hence the name. The T-tail differs from the standard configuration in which the tailplane is ...
.
The
1973 oil crisis
The 1973 oil crisis or first oil crisis began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), led by Saudi Arabia, proclaimed an oil embargo. The embargo was targeted at nations that had supp ...
rendered the Do 231 proposal as uneconomical due to the high fuel consumption necessary for vertical takeoff and landing, and the aircraft was cancelled in 1976 without a single prototype being built.
Variants
;Do 231C
:Commercial variant for ''
Lufthansa
Deutsche Lufthansa AG (), commonly shortened to Lufthansa, is the flag carrier of Germany. When combined with its subsidiaries, it is the second- largest airline in Europe in terms of passengers carried. Lufthansa is one of the five founding m ...
'' with a capacity of 100 passengers.
;Do 231M
:Military variant with a stretched fuselage and a rear loading ramp.
Specifications (Do 231C)
See also
References
{{Dornier aircraft
Do 231
V/STOL aircraft by thrust vectoring
1970s German experimental aircraft
Abandoned military aircraft projects of Germany
1970s German aircraft
Aircraft with auxiliary jet engines
High-wing aircraft