G.Haddow, P.Grosz The German Giants (Putnam)

Dornier Rs.I

   The giant Dornier flying-boats signified the beginning of an aircraft enterprise that still exists today as the oldest German aircraft concern. Its longevity is due in great measure to its brilliant founder, Claudius Dornier, who, after having built and lost an aircraft empire, has had the satisfaction of experiencing its rebirth.
   Dornier, born in 1884, had joined the experimental design offices of the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin in 1910 after three years work with several steel construction firms. At first he was engaged in a variety of airship problems, among them: stress calculations, propeller theory, preliminary investigation of a metal-clad airship and the design of a rotating airship hangar which earned him a prize and a patent, one of the many assigned to him in his lifetime. From the beginning, Dornier proved himself a thorough and creative engineer, endowed with the ability to reduce ideas to practical use. These talents soon caught the eye of Graf Zeppelin, with the result that in 1913 Dornier was transferred to Graf Zeppelin's private design bureau in Friedrichshafen to work on an 80,000 cubic metre steel airship capable of flying across the Atlantic. This behemoth, three times the size of existing airship, was to have been completed for the Dusseldorf World's Fair of 1916, from which it was to fly to America and then on to the San Francisco Exposition. However, war intervened, and the ambitious project was abandoned.
   As described elsewhere, Graf Zeppelin organized the VGO-Staaken venture in 1914 to construct a giant wooden bombing aircraft as quickly as possible. At the same time, however, Graf Zeppelin, believing in the ultimate superiority of all-metal construction, commissioned Dornier to undertake the more formidable task of building all-metal seaplanes. Dornier collected his small design staff and moved into all old airship hangar at Seemoos, on the shores of Lake Constance, to begin his revolutionary work. The new organization was known as Zeppelin-Werke Lindau. G.m.b.H ., although the aircraft built by this firm were all designated "Dornier".
   In 1914 metal was an uncommon construction material for aircraft, but Dornier and his engineering staff approached the problem of developing lightweight structures with vigour and ingenuity. Aluminium was available, but in its unalloyed state it was a relatively low-strength metal. Progress had been made with aluminium alloys such as the newly-developed duraluminium, an alloy which doubled the strength of aluminium, but, being new, still suffered from a number of faults. A Dornier engineer had this to say about the material:
   Dural was a brand new material in 1914, available only for experimental use. It had many drawbacks. For instance, it was not produced in consistent quality; more often than not a rolled Dural sheet would exfoliate like the leaves of a book. Impurity inclusions caused frequent embrittlement cracking and after brief periods of storage, the Dural sheet had the unpleasant tendency to disintegrate in spots to a white powder.
   Although an airship using duraluminium parts was placed into service in early 1915, the very promising metal was not yet suitable for all-round aircraft use. Dornier therefore decided in favour of a mixed construction technique using principally high-strength steel for his first all-metal aircraft, with less-stressed sections formed from duraluminium.
   At first glance it would appear that steel tubing would make an ideal structural medium, for it was light, easy to produce and possessed a high strength-to-weight ratio. Yet from Dornier's point of view it was far from perfect. Tubes are extremely difficult to join with bolts and rivets, and invariably a weakening of the structure takes place. Welding, at the time, was considered still unreliable; inspection of the welded joint was not foolproof, and the high welding temperatures involved had a tendency to weaken the metal, although this situation was to change later in the war. Finally, the many sizes of tubing required would entail extensive storage facilities and place Dornier at the disadvantage of being dependent on the producer for special tube sizes.
   Dornier chose to exploit the ingenious construction method which he had developed and was perfecting for the transatlantic airship project. The starting material was alloy steel strip of varying widths and thicknesses, which had the advantage of being easy to fabricate, ship and store. The strip was then readily drawn or rolled into hollow-flanged profiles (for example, open flanged, "clover leaf" and V-shapes) of different dimensions as the occasion required. An inverted U profile was then placed into the open end of the "clover leaf" and joined with rivets. The extended flanges provided a surface to which other profiles and structural parts could easily be fastened. This method of forming structural members and variations thereof not only remained Dornier's basic structural philosophy for years, but virtually was the foundation for modern all-metal aircraft construction techniques the world over. These shapes possessed higher buckling strengths and had better resistance to breaking than tubing of similar weight and cross-section. Furthermore, an infinite variety of shapes could be formed to suit every structural requirement of the aeronautical engineer.
   The design of the all-metal Dornier Rs.I was begun in August 1914, and by January of the following year the actual assembly work had begun. Former Dornier test pilot, Erich Schroter, recalls that Graf Zeppelin followed with deep interest every detail of the Rs.I assembly. In spite of his advanced years, he would not hesitate to climb an extended fire ladder to watch the huge wings being lowered on to the hull. The Rs.I was a private venture, and as such it was not assigned an official Navy identification number. (The first two Dornier R-seaplanes were also at one time designated by the company as FS.I and FS.II (for Flugzeug Seemoos or Flugschiff), but the Rs designation later became standard)
   The framework of the Rs.I was constructed primarily of alloy steel using Dornier's ingenious double-flanged shapes, perforated girders, built-up triangular sections and stamped sheet. The uncovered frame of the Rs.I had all the earmarks of contemporary airship structure. In spite of its shortcomings, duraluminium was used for light unstressed structural parts as well as for the lower fuselage covering.
   The wings were of relatively narrow chord considering their great span. The upper wing was constructed around four built-up truss spars, two of which formed the supporting structure, while the remaining two were designed to take pure bending loads which were transferred to the main structure at the junction points. Duraluminium rib profiles were riveted to the spars to form the airfoil section, and they were internally braced by diagonal cross-members. The ribs were wrapped with linen strips to which the wing covering was sewn. The lower wing consisted of a similar three-spar structure that was attached to a fuselage pivot point, in a manner that permitted the angle of incidence of both wings to be varied by changing the length of the forward fuselage strut. The lower wing had slight dihedral, and two small duraluminium stabilizing floats were mounted at the wing tips. (Early project drawings show the stabilizing floats mounted just outboard of the engines.) Unconventional triangular wing struts, reminiscent of the Warren truss when viewed head-on, eliminated the need for interplane cables. The huge unbalanced ailerons were unusual in that they spanned half the length of the upper wing.
   The Rs.I hull was of orthodox design, single-stepped, with the tail section rising gently to keep the tail well above water. The planing surface and the sides of the hull were covered with sheet duraluminium, while the top and rear were covered with fabric. The pilots sat in a large square cockpit in the nose behind a rather awkward Cellon canopy which must have seriously restricted their forward view. A machine-gun ring was mounted in the cabin roof just behind the pilots' seats. Consistent with Graf Zeppelin's "bomb in harbour" theory, provisions were made to carry a 1000 kg. bomb in the hull. In what was perhaps the first test of its kind, model of the RS.I hull were extensively tested in the indoor tow tank of the Kgl. Versuchsanstalt fur Wasserbau und Schiffbau (Berlin) beginning in September 1914. Today, of course, such tests are taken for granted.
   The simple square monoplane tail assembly was strut-braced and a small triangular fin supported a perfectly square rudder. The tail surfaces were balanced by hingeing them some distance behind their leading edges. All surfaces were covered with linen.
   In October 1915 the Rs. I emerged from its hangar at Seemoos, the largest aircraft in the world, with a wingspan of over 142 feet. This in itself was a remarkable achievement made even more incredible by the fact that the Rs.I was constructed wholly of metal. The machine at this point was powered by three 240 h.p. Maybach HS (or Mb.IV) engines, two of which were buried in the hull and drove two pusher propellers mounted on the lower wings. The drive system, similar to that used on airships, consisted of the usual outrigger shafts and bevel gear-boxes to transmit power. The third engine, directly driving a pusher propeller, was mounted in the wing gap above the hull. The buried engines were cooled by two radiators fixed to the fuselage decking, while the third radiator was mounted in front of the central engine. The Rs.I taxying trials began on 12 October 1915 with test pilots Hellmuth Hirth and Erich Schroter at the controls. Further tests, conducted on 15 and 16 October, resulted in a taxying speed of 40-50 km.h. This was still some 30-40 km.h. below the calculated lift-off velocity. A sudden end to tests came on 23 October when the port propeller or drive fractured and fragments tore the trailing edge of the upper wing. Dornier himself wrote that the unreliability and complexity of the outrigger drive system, its inability to transmit high forces and the problem of mounting it rigidly, finally forced him to dispense with the buried engine. Another reason, perhaps, for modifying the Rs.I may have been to raise the propellers. Fixed to the lower wings as they were, they may have been badly battered by the heavy spray which the Rs.I was capable of kicking up. In any case, the three Maybach engines were placed between the wings on an integral engine mount consisting of broad streamlined girder struts fixed to the fuselage, completely independent of the wing structure. The engines were connected to each other by a streamlined cat-walk fitted with hand-rails, so that mechanics could move among and service the engines in flight.
   Presumably the Rs.I carried out scores of taxying trials, for the inhabitants on the shores of Lake Constance made fun of it with this doggerel:
   That is the flying-boat from Seemoos.
   From the lake it can't come loose.
   They were right. The Rs.I never did fly. On its fifth and final trial it came to grief.
   Here is what the Dornier test pilot, Erich Schroter, wrote of that fateful day, 21 December 1915, when the RS.I was destroyed:
   Preliminary engine and taxying trials were being carried out when the treacherous Fohn wind, common to the Lake Constance area, made its sudden and unexpected appearance. We immediately made preparations to bring the Rs.I back into the hangar, when the slipway on which the aircraft rested sideways to the wind, jammed. The Rs.I was in great danger of immediate destruction, but we managed to relaunch it. Using all engines to keep the aircraft heading into the violent gusts, we succeeded in mooring the Rs.I to a buoy. It soon became evident that the mooring would part, threatening the Rs.I with destruction on the rocks. Night fell quickly. About 11 p.m. a packet boat ventured near in an attempt to take off the storm-tossed crew, but was unable to do so as it was in danger of foundering. The only chance of saving the Rs.I appeared to be for one of the large lake steamers from Friedrichshafen to tow the aircraft out to the middle of the lake, there to ride out the storm away from the danger of the nearby rocks. However, owing to the extreme conditions, all steamship traffic on Lake Constance had been halted. Those on land saw the giant aircraft buffeted by the waves until the early morning when the moorings broke, and the RS.I was driven on to the waiting rock and there pounded to pieces.
   This incident was to cause great consternation among naval engineers and constructors concerning the best means to shelter these fragile aircraft from the elements.
   The Rs.I, although it never took to the air, provided a valuable proving ground for new structural techniques, many of which were incorporated in later Dornier designs with much success. As an aircraft, the all-metal Rs.I will always stand high among the great aircraft of the world for its daring concepts, great size and technological pioneering.


Color Scheme and Markings

   The black cross Patee superimposed on a square white background was painted on both upper and lower wing surfaces of both wings, and on the rudder surface.


SPECIFICATIONS

Type: Dornier RS.I
   Manufacturer: Zeppelin-Werke Lindau G.M.b.H., Seemoos, Lake Constance
   Engines: Three 240 h.p. Maybach HS (Mb.IV) engines
   Dimensions:
   Span upper, 43•5 m. (142 ft. 9 in.)
   Chord, 4•6 m. (15 ft. 1 in.)
   Span lower, 37•75 m. (123 ft. 10 in.)
   Chord, 3•6 m. (11 ft. 10 in.)
   Length, 29•0 m. (95 ft. 1 1/2 in.)
   Height, 7•2 m. (23 ft. 7 1/2 in.)
   Hull length, 27-4 m. (89 ft. 10 1/2 in.)
   Hull beam, 3•5 m. (11 ft. 6 in.)
   Areas:
   Wings, 328•8 sq. m. (3538 sq. ft.)
   Tailplane, 27 sq. m. (291 sq. ft.)
   Elevator, 16 sq. 111. (172 sq. ft.)
   Rudder, 10 sq. 111. (108 sq. ft.)
   Fin, 5•3 sq. m. (57 sq. ft.)
   Ailerons, 24•8 sq. 111. (267 sq. ft.)
   Weights:
   Empty, 7500 kg. (16,537 lb.)
   Loaded, 10,500 kg. (23,153 lb.)
   Service Use: None

M.Schmeelke Zeppelin-Lindau Aircraft of WW1 (A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes 42)

Rs.I: The World's First Giant Flying Boat

  The first buildings began to rise from the ground at the Seemoos compound in August 1914. In the beginning there was a small shed with two rooms for the design work, and a production hall, measuring 60 meters by 50 meters, and it had a height of about 30 meters. It was used for the production of parts and the assembly of the flying boats. To bring them into the water, a pully system was added, which led from the hangar into Lake Constance. The transportation car, mounted on rails, traveled about 100 meters into the lake. Initially the cable winch was hand-cranked, but later an electric motor was installed.
  Until 1916, more and more buildings were erected in Seemoos, housing a mechanical workshop, a metal-working shop, storage, and technical offices.
  While in August 1914 the Abt. Do team consisted of Claude Dornier, a designer, a master craftsman, and six workers, the department grew to 10 constructors and two designers by December. In the beginning of 1915 the workforce grew to 150 people.
  As soon as the first buildings were complete, work began on the Rs.I and in January of the following year the construction of the giant flying boat began in earnest. Some of Claude Dornier's important colleagues included the engineers Rohrbach (boat), Ruleaux (cell), Schulte-Frohlinde (engines and controls), Klemm and Lupberger (aerodynamics), Schwengler (structural analysis), Messerschmitt (testing), and the workshop leaders Wild and Lenz.
  Rs.I was designed to be a biplane with a wingspan of 43.5 meters, and the upper and lower wings were to be connected with eight V-struts. The wings' bracing was swivel-mounted, so that the pitch angle between the wings and the hull of the boat could be changed in order to generate additional lift. The complete but yet uncovered wing was a technical masterpiece, which also impressed Professor Baumann when he visited Seemoos. The wings would be covered in fabric. Small wooden strips were attached to the aluminum alloy ribs so that the fabric could be attached with brass nails. The 29-meter-long hull also had a metal ribcage. Dornier chose duraluminum to cover the fuselage. Only the top and back parts of the boat, which would not directly come into contact with water, were to be covered in fabric.
  Rs.I did not receive a camouflage paint scheme, but instead had a sea cruiser finish in a shade of green to protect it from the corrosive sea water. The steel sheet rivets were sealed with strips of fabric soaked in black tar.
  Three 240 horsepower HS engines from the neighboring Maybach Motorenwerke powered the flying boat. In its first iteration, one of the engines was built into a nacelle at the center of the boat, and directly drove the propeller. Two further Maybach engines were attached with engine mounts, on either side of the hull, and powered propellers via an extension shaft. The cooling units of both hull engines were attached to the upper side of the hull, while the nacelle engine had a front radiator.
  Count Zeppelin followed the construction of Rs.I closely and with great interest, and wanted to know every detail. After all, his company carried the entire financial burden of the project since the Reichs Naval Office had not (yet) placed an order.
  The first taxi tests, led by Hellmuth Hirth and naval pilot Erich Schroter on October 12th, 1915 on Lake Constance, showed the placement of the two side-mounted engines was problematic. On October 23rd, 1915 the backboard suspension in the hull broke, and the drive shaft was torn. The flapping propeller damaged the top wing so that Dornier was forced to mount all three engines in external nacelles between the upper and lower wings, so that they could propel the propellers with a direct drive.
  This second iteration of the craft would allow the flying boat to reach a maximum taxi speed of 40-50 kilometers per hour during testing on Lake Constance, still 30-40 kilometers per hour slower than the calculated speed required for take-off.
  Despite all their efforts, the 10.5 ton heavy flying boat did not rise out of the water. On the fifth try, on December 21st, 1915, a propeller broke. Heinrich Triller's report about the event reads:
  “[...] The engines ran well, and the aircraft reached a high speed. I had the feeling it would take off from the water at any moment. After two minutes at full throttle, the middle Reschke Propeller snapped. I immediately stopped all three engines. The middle motor, including the nacelle, had already been torn from the structure. The split propeller had damaged the upper wing, including the starboard aileron and severely damaged the roof.
  The reason the propeller broke was probably because the center engine's propeller was 50 centimeters longer than the others. This then bent during full throttle, swiped the mount, and likely caused the break. A motorboat towed the Rs.I to the shoreline. But here it could not be placed upon the carriage because earlier in the day, as the aircraft was being brought into the water, the carriage had jumped its tracks and rested two meters below the waterline. Despite all efforts, hindered by the ice-cold water and the high sea swells, it was not possible to return the carriage to the track that evening. The flying boat had to be anchored to a buoy on the lake. During the night, a foehn storm (a very windy, warm storm from the south) whipped up the waves to a meter high and more, which ripped the buoy from its anchorage and drove it and the craft toward land. The boat hit a rock, causing it to partially sink. The damage from the storm was so severe that it was impossible to even think of repairing it. Although the first experimental aircraft never actually made it into the air, it was still a groundbreaking design. The developers in Seemoos had learned a great deal and used that knowledge when they set out to build Rs.II.



Specifications of Zeppelin-Lindau Aircraft

Type Length, m Span, m Height, m Chord, m Propeller Manufact. Armament
(guns) Weight, kg Motor Crew
Rs.I 29.00 43.50 7.20 4.60 Garuda/Reschke 1 flexible 6,475 Maybach Mb IVa 240 hp 5
Rs.II 28.88 33.20 7.60 6.50 Lorenz 3.70 1 flexible 6,388 Maybach Mb IV/IVa 6
Rs.III 22.74 37.00 8.10 6.50 versch. 4 flexible 7,865 Maybach Mb IVa 6
Rs.IV 22.30 37.00 8.55 6.50 versch. 4 flexible 6,980 Maybach Mb IVa 6

M.Dusing German Aviation Industry in WWI. Volume 2 (A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes 85)

Zeppelin-Werke Lindau GmbH (ZWL), (Do)

  Dipl. Ing. Claude Dornier, born in Kempten on May 14, 1884, joined the Zeppelin Luftschiffbau as early as 1910 and carried out preliminary work for a large steel airship. After the outbreak of war in 1914, Count Zeppelin decided to take up aircraft construction as well, founded a new shipyard in Seemoos and commissioned C. Dornier to develop giant flying boats here. In 1916, factory buildings were added in Reutin near Lindau and Zech on the Bavarian-Austrian border. In 1917, these facilities were transformed into the independent company "Zeppelinwerke Lindau GmbH" (ZWL) and continued to be run by Dornier as managing director. A number of giant flying boats were built in Seemoos, the first of their kind, designed in all-metal construction by Dr. C. Dornier, which today are generally attributed to the Dornier plant, although they were built by the Luftschiffbau Group and Claude Dornier did not build aircraft on his own account in Friedrichshafen until after the First World War.
  Around the time Flugzeugbau-Friedrichshafen GmbH was founded as a new subsidiary of Luftschiffbau for the construction of seaplanes, the decision matured at Zeppelin to find another company - Zeppelin-Werke, Lindau, GmbH.
  The seaplanes developed by Claude Dornier at the Seemoos and Reutin factories bore the military abbreviation "Do".


Aircraft Development:

  The influence of the Lindau developments on wartime events can be considered extremely small. Apart from a few frontline missions of the Rs.III, no Dornier aircraft took part in any significant combat missions. However, the technological advancement of metal aircraft construction by Claude Dornier and his engineers is even more noteworthy. The achievements of the early flying boats had a significant influence on the design of seaplanes of the postwar period and beyond.
  Zeppelinwerke Lindau GmbH was one of the oldest companies on the continent, which for many years considered metal aircraft construction to be its sole task, avoiding the tubular constructions and welding of any kind that were otherwise generally used.
  Large funds provided by the late Count Zeppelin to the head of the company, his long-time employee in airship construction, Mr. Dornier, enabled the company to work on the methodical development of the metal aircraft for over six years as a purely experimental company.
  The experience gained during this time was extremely valuable and became fundamental for metal airplane construction.
  From the very beginning, only high-quality steel and duralumin were used as construction materials. While highly stressed parts, such as spars, engine mounts, spars and the like, were preferably made of hardened steel, duralumin was mainly used for hulls, boats, floats, and spars. The development of, particularly favorable cross-sectional shapes of profiles made of steel and light metal was one of the company's main tasks for many years.
  Extensive load tests with spars, struts, complete wings, and airplanes created the necessary documentation for calculating the aircraft. Hand in hand with this work went the testing of the aircraft in the air.
  The company's field of activity was seaplanes and landplanes of all types and dimensions. From the very beginning, special attention was paid to the construction of monoplanes and aircraft without bracing.
  The factory built and designed airplanes from 160 to 2400 HP and, thanks to its unique experience, was able to meet even the most demanding requirements. The company was particularly involved in the construction of flying boats.
  While the first Dornier flying boat Rs.l, built in 1914/15, still had the usual support floats, the second type Do Rs.II was already an inherently stable hull.
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