Reply With QuoteGood thing, there is sofar no Dornier aircraft preserved, except Do-24s
WWII bomber found in the English Channel
WWII bomber found in the English Channel
By QMI Agency
A Dornier 17 that landed on a wet sandbank and quickly sank during the Battle of Britain, is so well preserved that they are going to restore it and make it into a museum piece (pic at link)
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/20.../15235511.html
Good thing, there is sofar no Dornier aircraft preserved, except Do-24s
Very nice, would be a great museum piece, but as a flying display it would be even better
Interesting find..
However, either the article is wrong or they have found one of the 15 built Do-17 U-0 pathfinder aircrafts with additional radio equipment, which explains the fifth crew member (Do-17 bombers usually carried a crew of four).
RIP to the killed.
From the sidescan images i'd say it is a Do 17Z, so it should be either from KG 2 or KG 76, at the time the only units still flying them.
4 was standard crew but a 5th crewmember could be carried. Newsreel cameraman, staff officer or ground crewman getting combat flying time.
A lot of possibilities.
I have the KG 2 chronicle, have to check the date.
Umm, isnt this a War Grave?
Thats a good question, Linedoggie.
Yes, but war graves are not totally protected. If they clear this up with the Volksbund and the two airmen get a proper funeral, it should be ok.Originally Posted by Linedoggie
I wonder how the property situation is. If it is within 3 miles of the british coast it is british, but otherwise the aircraft should still be german property.
I'm surprised there aren't more of these preserved. As I understand, the "Flying Pencil" was pretty widely used. The Finnish air force flew this type too, so I have to wonder if there aren't some at the bottom of Lake Ladoga. If only they could be recovered!
Last edited by SoSo; 09-03-2010 at 06:04 PM.
1.000 kg.? That would be only four 250 kg. bombs. What was the average payload for bombers (medium and heavy) during WWII?
Not even that.
The early Do 17 was limited to SC 50s internally except for short range missions, as was the Ju 88. But the Junkers at least could carry larger bombs externally.
The only one of the early trio of bombers that could carry SC 250s internally was the He 111.
Usual loadout of the Do 17s were 10 50 kg bombs. It was however possible to carry a single 250 or 500 kg bomb externally.
But the Do 17s were only used for a specialty role by that time anyway, as "hedge hoppers", very low flying intruder or anti-ship missions, often alone or in small formations.
The Dorniers were very stable aircraft down low, maybe a heritage from the flying boat experience of the company.
Btw, the Spanish had a single early "flying pencil" dornier in a Museum but scrapped it in the 70s, I think
B-25 Mitchell Medium Bomber: 6,000 lb (2,700 kg)
B-17 Flying Fortress Heavy Bomber: depending on range, 4,500 lb (2,000 kg)-17,600 lb (7,800 kg)
Wellington Medium Bomber: 4,500 lb (2,041 kg)
Lancaster Heavy Bomber: 14,000 lb (6,300kg)
Heinkel He 111 Medium Bomber: 5,512 lb (2,500 kg )
Heinkel He 177 Heavy Bomber: 13,227 lb (6,000 kg)
German bombers were never very good at carrying large loads, they made the bad mistake early on of having the bombs loaded vertically in the bomb bays so that there was a maximum length and size of bomb they could carry internally.
The RAF used the same system in 1939 except for the Wellington
Not every German bomber, though. Especially later models like the Do 217 M-1 were quite able to deliver large "presents". However, a main weakpoint of the German bomber concept was the fact that every bomber should be able to dive - even the He-177! Afaik, Heinkel himself was pretty pissed about it.
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