The Dornier Do H ''Falke'' was a German single-seat fighter, designed by

Claude Dornier Claude (Claudius) Honoré Désiré Dornier (born in Kempten im Allgäu on 14 May 1884 – 5 December 1969) was a German-French airplane designer and founder of Dornier GmbH. His notable designs include the 12-engine Dornier Do X flying boat, ...

and built by

Dornier Flugzeugwerke Dornier Flugzeugwerke was a German aircraft manufacturer founded in Friedrichshafen in 1914 by Claude Dornier. Over the course of its long lifespan, the company produced many designs for both the civil and military markets. History Originally ...

. Although an advanced design for its time, being evaluated by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

as the Wright WP-1, it did not go into production.

Development

The company started to design a

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

fighter in the early 1920s, based on earlier wartime designs like the Zeppelin-Lindau D.I. It was an all-metal high-wing

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

, with the wing above the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

on four small struts. It had a conventional cantilever tail unit and a fixed tailskid landing gear. The pilot had an open

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, usually near the front of an aircraft or spacecraft, from which a Pilot in command, pilot controls the aircraft. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the ...

just behind the

trailing edge The trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface such as a wing is its rear edge, where the airflow separated by the leading edge meets.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 521. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. ...

of the wing. The aircraft was powered by a Hispano-Suiza piston engine located in the nose. Two aircraft were built by the

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

subsidiary of Dornier and three by S.D.C.M.P. in Italy, to avoid restrictions on military aircraft production in Germany.Swanborough and Bowers 1976, p. 496. It first flew on 1 November 1922, but failed to go into production. One of the ''Falke''s was converted to a

floatplane A floatplane is a type of seaplane with one or more slender floats mounted under the fuselage to provide buoyancy. By contrast, a flying boat uses its fuselage for buoyancy. Either type of seaplane may also have landing gear suitable for land, ...

in 1923, powered by a 261 kW (350 hp)

BMW IV The BMW IV was a six-cylinder, water-cooled inline aircraft engine built in Germany in the 1920s. Power was in the 180 kW (250 hp) range. World record On 17 June 1919 Franz Zeno Diemer flew a DFW F37, powered by a BMW IV engine to ...

a V-12 engine, as the Dornier Seefalke. One ''Seefalke'' was shipped to the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

by the Wright Aeronautical Company, who fitted it with a licence-built

Wright-Hisso H-3 The Hispano-Suiza 8 was a water-cooled V8 SOHC aero engine introduced by Hispano-Suiza in 1914, and was the most commonly used liquid-cooled engine in the aircraft of the Entente Powers during the First World War. The original Hispano-Suiza 8A ...

engine. It was evaluated by the United States Navy with the designation Wright WP-1. It performed well, but the Navy considered the monoplane fighter too advanced for its needs.

Operators

; *

Specifications (Dornier-Wright WP-1)

Notes

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, . *Swanborough, Gordon and Bowers, Peter M. ''United States Navy Aircraft since 1911''. London: Putnam. Second Edition, 1976. . {{Authority control 1920s German fighter aircraft Do H Wright aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Parasol-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1922

Development

Operators

Specifications (Dornier-Wright WP-1)

See also

Notes

Bibliography