Dornier Do H Falke

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Do H Falke
Wright WP-1.jpg
The WP-1 under test with the US Navy in about 1923
Role Fighter
Manufacturer Dornier Flugzeugwerke
Designer Claude Dornier
First flight1922
Primary user United States Navy
Number built5 [1]
Developed from Zeppelin-Lindau D.I
Variants Kawasaki KDA-3

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

Contents

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

Flag of the United States (1912-1959).svg  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

Related lists

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Dornier H Falke". Germany. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 25 February 2012.
  2. 1 2 Swanborough and Bowers 1976, p. 496.

Bibliography

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