The 1921 Dornier DRAGON FLY — ie mini-me WAL

Folks,

In the 1920s, the German’s at Dornier developed some very good flying boats, including the famous WAL series. One item they developed was the replacement of the wing tip floats with aerodynamic sponsons that gave stability while on the water and lift while flying. According to the Spanish Air Force and the Dutch who operated flying boats with wing tip floats and sponsons it was far safer to land with flying boats that had sponsons.

Very little known, Dornier tested the concept of sponsons on a small 3 seater flying boat called the Dragon Fly. They produced it in Switizerland on lake that bordered both German and Switzerland to avoid the restrictions of the treaty that ended WW1.

When the first pictures of the Dragon Fly many noticed how the wing folded back and how compact it was when the wings were folded back. Many commented they did not understand why Dornier had this feature on the Dragon Fly. It would seem to me that someone could put two and two together. During WW1 the German Navy had a merchant raider that was extremely successful raiding in the Pacific and Indian Ocean that avoided Allied warships because it had a small two seater floatplane which while crude did the job. After The SS Wolf returned to Germany, the German Navy put out a request for ideas for better seaplanes for surface raiders to carry, and also for possible use from submarines. I would bet the Dragon Fly was a result of that research. Either way for an aircraft that flew in 1921, it was amazing at how far ahead it was of other aircraft designs.

Anyone agree or disagree?

Jack E. Hammond

http://tinyurl.com/6bmc79t

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