Contents

Dornier Do H Falke

1920s German fighter aircraft

Do H Falke
The WP-1 under test with the US Navy in about 1923
Role	Fighter Type of aircraft
Manufacturer	Dornier Flugzeugwerke
Designer	Claude Dornier
First flight	1922
Primary user	United States Navy
Number built	5[1]
Developed from	Zeppelin-Lindau D.I
Variants	Kawasaki KDA-3

The Dornier Do H Falke (Falcon) 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]

Development[edit]

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[edit]

 United States

• United States Navy

Specifications (Dornier-Wright WP-1)[edit]

Data from The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft (Part Work 1982-1985), 1985, Orbis Publishing, Page 1480

General characteristics

• Crew: one
• Length: 7.43 m (24 ft 4.33 in)
• Wingspan: 10 m (32 ft 9.75 in)
• Height: 2.66 m (8 ft 8.75 in)
• Wing area: 20 m² (215.29 sq ft)
• Empty weight: 825 kg (1,819 lb)
• Gross weight: 1,213 kg (2,674 lb)
• Powerplant: 1 × Wright-Hisso H-3 V-8 piston engine , 239 kW (320 hp)

Performance

• Maximum speed: 261 km/h (162 mph, 141 kn)
• Range: 350 km (217 mi, 189 nmi)

See also[edit]

Related lists

• List of United States Navy aircraft designations (pre-1962)

Notes[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Dornier Do H Falke.

Bibliography[edit]

• The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Aircraft, (Part Work 1982-1985), Orbis Publishing
• Andrade, John. U.S. Military Aircraft Designations and Serials since 1909, Midland Counties Publications, 1979, ISBN 0-904597-22-9.
• Swanborough, Gordon and Bowers, Peter M. United States Navy Aircraft since 1911. London: Putnam. Second Edition, 1976. ISBN 0-370-10054-9.
• Zuerl, Walter (1941). Deutsche Flugzeug Konstrukteure. München, Germany: Curt Pechstein Verlag.