On a recent trip to the local Kempten Museum, I noticed the name of a man whose name also appeared on some of the planes we saw at the Deutches Museum. Upon closer inspection, I discovered that this man was born right here in Kempten. His name was Claudius Dornier.
He was born on May 14th, 1884, to a local German woman and a French wine maker. Here, he lived and attended school, while showing signs of his mechanical interests. His parents convinced him to go on to college where he attended at the Technical University of Munich. He graduated in 1907 with a degree in mechanical engineering.
His first job was a brief stint at the Nagel Engineering Works in Karlsruhe. From there, he got his big break that would make his name memorable when he took a job at Luftschiffbau Zeppelin (yes, as in the air ships company) in nearby Friedrichshafen. Here, he perfected his work on light metals to use as airplane bodies and began construction of metal airplanes. He specialized in water planes, or flying boats. He also developed a unique push/pull engine system that allowed planes to get to ever faster speeds - some as high as 600 mph. His biggest accomplishment, though, was the Do-X that he designed and built after starting his own company in 1929. This plane was the largest and most powerful passenger plane ever built and flew from Germany to New York in 1931, amid much speculation about whether a plane so big made out of metal could stay aloft. For decades, it retained the title as the biggest plane. Other planes of note that he designed were the Do 17, also known as the Flying Pencil, which was used extensively as a military plane in the Battle of Britain by the Germans; the Do 217, a heavy bomber; and the Do 335, which although not developed in time for use in the war, was the fastest piston-engine plane developed. His flying boats, the Do 22 and the Do 24 also served in the war, ironically used by the British Air Force and Australian Air Force. After the war, the Do 24 was used by both Sweden and Spain, with some being used as recently as 1967. In 1974, his company produced a plane called the Alpha Jet that was used as the standard NATO trainer. In 1985, the Dornier company empire was broken up with parts going to Daimler-Benz and the rest beginning as independent spin-offs in areas of textile machinery, defense, satellites, medical technology and aircraft design. The aircraft portion was then bought in 1996 by Fairchild Aircraft and formed the new company Fairchild Dornier. Today, the Dornier planes are being built under a new name, Dornier Seaplanes, created by Claude's grandson, Conrado, and is located in Miami, while the remaining portions of the Dornier spin-offs, with the exception of the textiles division, have been sold to other companies.
Claude Dornier died on December 5th, 1969, in Zug, Switzerland. His legacy in aircraft aviation was remarkable, and further research at his facilities on supersonic effects on metals paved the way for not only supersonic flight, but innovations in the medical fields as well, for use in destroying kidney stones. Another grandson, Iren Dornier, also continues the family interest in aviation by owning his own airline in the Philippines.
The word for the day is airplane: das Flugzeug (flewg tsoig).
The question for the day is "How many languages are spoken in Europe and is there just one that all Europeans know?"
Auf Wiedersehen,
Frau Spitzer
