Dornier Do 335
The Dornier Do 335 Pfeil ("Arrow") was a German World War II heavy fighter.
There are many advantages to this design over the more traditional system of placing one engine on each wing, the most important being power from two engines with the frontal area (and thus drag) of a single-engine design, allowing for higher performance. It also keeps the weight of the twin powerplants near, or on, the aircraft centerline, increasing the roll rate compared to a traditional twin.
The four-surface set of cruciform tail surfaces in the Do 335's rear fuselage design included a ventral vertical fin–rudder assembly that projected downwards from the extreme rear of the fuselage, to protect the rear propeller from an accidental ground strike on takeoff. The presence of the rear pusher propeller also required the provision for an ejection seat for safe escape from a damaged aircraft, and designing the rear propeller and dorsal fin mounts to use explosive bolts to jettison them before an ejection was attempted – as well as twin canopy jettison levers, one per side located to either side of the forward cockpit interior just below the sills of the five-panel windscreen's sides, to jettison the canopy from atop the cockpit before ejection.
When fitted with DB 603A engines delivering 1,726 hp at takeoff it had a pair of the largest displacement -44.52 litres - inverted V12 aircraft engine design mass-produced during the Third Reich's existence. The Do 335 V1 first prototype,flew on 26 October 1943. Several problems during the initial flight of the Do 335 would continue to plague the aircraft through most of its short history. Issues were found with the weak landing gear and with the main gear's wheel well doors, resulting in them being removed for the remainder of the V1's test flights. The Do 335 V1 made 27 flights, flown by three different pilots. During these test flights the second prototype, was completed and made its first flight on 31 December 1943. New to the V2 were upgraded DB 603A-2 engines, and several refinements learned from the test flights. On 20 January 1944, the Do 335 V3,was flown for its first time. The V3 was powered by the new pre-production DB 603G-0 engines which could produce 1,900 PS at take-off and featured a slightly redesigned canopy.In mid January 1944, RLM ordered five more prototypes (V21–V25), to be built as night fighters. By this time, more than 60 hours of flight time had been put on the Do 335 and reports showed it to be a good handling,and very fast.The Do 335 was scheduled to begin mass construction, with the initial order of 120 preproduction aircraft.This number included a number of bombers, destroyers (heavy fighters), and several yet to be developed variants. At the same time, Dornier-Werke München (DWM) was scheduled to build over 2,000 Do 335s in various models, due for delivery in March 1946.
At least 16 prototype Do 335s were known to have flown on a number of DB603 engine subtypes including the DB 603A, A-2, G-0, E and E-1. The first preproduction Do 335 (A-0s) were delivered in July 1944. Approximately 22 preproduction aircraft were thought to have been completed and flown before the end of the war, including approximately 11 A-0s converted to A-11s for training purposes. One such aircraft was transferred to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, and later, after a rear-engine fire burnt through the elevator controls during a flight, crashed onto a local school.
Only one Do 335 survives, the second preproduction Do 335 A-0, designated A-02, with construction number 240 102, and factory radio code registration of VG+PH. The aircraft was assembled at the Dornier plant in Oberpfaffenhofen, Bavaria on 16 April 1945. It was captured by Allied forces at the plant on 22 April 1945. VG+PH can be seen today in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum alongside other unique late-war German aircraft.
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