The Dornier Do 214 was a proposed large long-range flying boat, developed by Dornier in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Development

Originally designed as the Do P.93 for passenger transatlantic service from Lisbon to New York, the Do 214 was redesigned as the P.192 for military service in early 1940. In 1941, a full-sized

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 aircraf ...

mockup was constructed in order to evaluate the interior layout. The fuselage was streamlined, having a round cross-section, with the interior consisting of two decks. Its wings featured a small amount of

sweep Sweep or swept may refer to: Cleaning * Sweep, the action of using a brush to clean * Chimney sweep, a worker who clears ash and soot from chimneys * Street sweeper, a person's occupation, or a machine that cleans streets * Swept quartz, a cleani ...

on the

leading edge The leading edge of an airfoil surface such as a wing is its foremost edge and is therefore the part which first meets the oncoming air.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 305. Aviation Supplies & Academics, ...

, with straight

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, 199 ...

s, and were shoulder-mounted on the fuselage. Eight Daimler-Benz DB 613 24-cylinder "power-system" engines — themselves consisting of a pair of

Daimler-Benz DB 603 The Daimler-Benz DB 603 was a German aircraft engine used during World War II. It was a liquid-cooled 12-cylinder inverted V12 enlargement of the DB 601, which was in itself a development of the DB 600. Production of the DB 603 commenced in ...

inverted V12 engines, paired up to run a single propeller like the DB 605-based "DB 610" engines of the

Heinkel He 177 The Heinkel He 177 ''Greif'' (Griffin) was a long-range heavy bomber flown by the ''Luftwaffe'' during World War II. The introduction of the He 177 to combat operations was significantly delayed, by both problems with the development of its ...

A, and themselves weighing over apiece (the DB 613 "power systems" would have weighed more like 1.8 tonnes apiece) — provided the power, with four

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or construction. Most commo ...

engines and four pusher engines. All eight "power system" engines, using a total of 16 DB 603s to complete them, provided power to two quartets of four-blade VDM variable-pitch propellers; the front propellers had a 5.00 m (16 ft 5 in) diameter, the rear propellers had a 4.60 m (15 ft 1 in) diameter. The mammoth eight-engine design was intended for use as a

military transport Military supply-chain management is a cross-functional approach to procuring, producing and delivering products and services for military materiel applications. Military supply chain management includes sub-suppliers, suppliers, internal info ...

, with a large bow door admitting vehicles and bulky freight to the upper deck. It was also designed for use as a long-range

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an air ...

, flying tanker, aerial

minelayer A minelayer is any warship, submarine or military aircraft deploying explosive mines. Since World War I the term "minelayer" refers specifically to a naval ship used for deploying naval mines. "Mine planting" was the term for installing control ...

and

U-boat U-boats were naval submarines operated by Germany, particularly in the First and Second World Wars. Although at times they were efficient fleet weapons against enemy naval warships, they were most effectively used in an economic warfare ro ...

supply vessel. By 1943, it was realized that long-range flying boats were not needed due to the worsening war situation, and the Do 214 project was canceled.

Göppingen Gö 8

A 1/5 scale model glider of the Dornier Do 214 was designed and built as the Göppingen Gö 8, by

Wolf Hirth Wolfram Kurt Erhard Hirth (28 February 1900 – 25 July 1959) was a German gliding pioneer and sailplane designer. He was a co-founder of Schempp-Hirth, still a renowned glider manufacturer.Segelflugbildkalendar 2011 Hirth was born in Stuttgart ...

and Ulrich Hütter. For

hydrodynamic In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids— liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including '' aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) a ...

stability tests of the hull integrated floats, in collaboration with the Göttingen aerodynamic laboratory, the glider was towed by a boat.

Specifications

The following specifications are for Do P.192-01 / Do 214 / civil airliner / DB 613C engines.

References

{{Authority control Abandoned military aircraft projects of Germany Do 214 German military transport aircraft Flying boats Eight-engined push-pull aircraft High-wing aircraft

Development

Göppingen Gö 8

Specifications

See also

References