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The Dornier Do X was the largest, heaviest, and most powerful flying boat in the world when it was produced by the Dornier company of Germany in 1929. First conceived by Dr. Claude Dornier in 1924, planning started in late 1925 and after over 240,000 work-hours it was completed in June 1929.〔Dornier Museum, 45 seconds〕 During the years between the two World Wars, only the Soviet Tupolev ANT-20 ''Maksim Gorki'' landplane of a few years later was physically larger, but at 53 metric tons maximum takeoff weight it was not as heavy as the Do X's 56 tonnes. The Do X was financed by the German Transport Ministry and in order to circumvent conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which forbade any aircraft exceeding set speed and range limits to be built by Germany after World War I, a specially designed plant was built at Altenrhein,〔 on the Swiss portion of Lake Constance. While the type was popular with the public, a lack of commercial interest and a number of non-fatal accidents prevented more than three examples from being built. ==Design== The Do X was a semi-cantilever monoplane.〔''Flight'' p233〕 The Do X had an all-duralumin hull, with wings composed of a steel-reinforced duralumin framework covered in heavy linen fabric, covered with aluminum paint. It was initially powered by twelve Siemens-built Bristol Jupiter radial engines in tandem mountings (i.e. a "push-pull" configuration), with six tractor propellers and six pushers mounted in six strut-mounted nacelles above the wing. The nacelles were joined by an auxiliary wing whose purpose was to stabilize the mountings.〔''Flight'' p234〕 The air-cooled Jupiter engines were prone to overheating and proved to only be able to lift the Do X to an altitude of 425 m (1,400 ft). The engines were supervised by a flight engineer, who also controlled the 12 throttles and monitored the 12 sets of engine gauges. The pilot would ask the engineer to adjust the power setting, in a manner similar to the system used on maritime vessels, i.e. an engine order telegraph.〔Dreamer, doers and daredevils, David Marshall and Bruce Harris,ISBN 1-74124-017-4,2003〕 Indeed, many aspects of the aircraft echoed nautical arrangements of the time, including the flight deck, which bore a strong resemblance to bridge of a vessel. After completing 103 flights in 1930, the Do X was refitted with Curtiss V-1570 "Conqueror" water-cooled V-12 Vee engine. Only then was it able to reach the altitude of 500 m (1,650 ft) necessary to cross the Atlantic. Dr. Dornier designed the flying boat to carry 66 passengers on long-distance flights or 100 passengers on short flights. The luxurious passenger accommodation approached the standards of transatlantic liners. There were three decks. On the main deck was a smoking room with its own wet bar, a dining salon, and seating for the 66 passengers which could also be converted to sleeping berths for night flights. Aft of the passenger spaces was an all-electric galley, lavatories, and cargo hold. The cockpit, navigational office, engine control and radio rooms were on the upper deck. The lower deck held fuel tanks and nine watertight compartments, only seven of which were needed to provide full flotation. Similar to the later Boeing 314, the DO-X lacked conventional wing floats, instead using fuselage mounted "stub wings" to stabilize the craft in the water, which also doubled as a embarkation platform for passengers. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Dornier Do X」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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