Microsoft Flight Simulator pilots can now fly one in all aviation’s biggest icons of innovation.
A MONUMENT OF AVIATION INGENUITY
The Dornier Do 31 is a jet-powered, vertical take-off and touchdown (VTOL), experimental army plane developed by the West German aviation producer and traditionally famend as the one jet-powered VTOL utility / transport plane ever created and flown. Though Dornier solely produced three experimental prototypes and by no means entered serial manufacturing, the Do 31 stays a permanent monument of aerospace ingenuity.
BORN OF COLD WAR IMPERATIVE
The distinctive Do 31 was born out of an bold Chilly Struggle initiative by the West German army to create an eminently resilient air power. An preliminary assault by the Soviet Bloc centered on air bases and runways all through
West Germany, grounding their airplanes. To counter this menace, the West Germans hatched a plan within the early Nineteen Sixties to create a brand new air power composed primarily of jet-powered VTOL plane. Such airplanes may function out of conventional air bases, expeditionary airfields, or roads and highways, together with Autobahns—any small stretch of concrete or asphalt would work.
The West German army’s plan included three VTOL plane: a fighter / interceptor: the EWR VJ 101; a floor assault platform: the VFW VAK-191B; and a big utility plane that might transport troops and cargo.
AN ENGINEERING MARVEL
Whereas helicopters had confirmed their utility by the early Nineteen Sixties, particularly for army operations, they have been restricted in each pace and raise potential. Growing a jet-powered transport plane, nonetheless, offered engineers
with large hurdles like producing and directing ample thrust to vertically raise an plane, transitioning it to horizontal flight, after which touchdown it vertically.
By the early Nineteen Sixties, corporations fascinated about jet-powered VTOL plane operation had confirmed the idea may work with experimental fashions. The Brief SC.1, developed by United Kingdom aviation firm Brief Brothers, took its maiden flight on Could 26, 1958. The Brief SC.1 was adopted by the primary flight of the British Hawker Siddeley P.1127, the progenitor to the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, the world’s first manufacturing VTOL fighter / assault jet. Each have been engineering breakthroughs that took years of improvement. The transport plane the West German army envisioned could be a lot bigger, dramatically growing the complexity. Dornier, famed for his or her flying boats and airliners, undertook the bold problem in February, 1962, when the corporate and the West German army formally launched the venture, designated the Do 31.
Whereas Dornier had by no means constructed a VTOL plane, the corporate’s engineers had gained expertise with brief take-off and touchdown (STOL) workouts with their Do 29. That airplane, which took its maiden flight in late 1958, was an experimental, twin-engine, piston-powered, high-wing monoplane that used tilting engine-propeller methods to spice up raise for take-off. The jet powered Do 31, meant to hold as much as 36 fight loaded troops, 7,700 kilos of cargo, or some mixture thereof, proved way more advanced. It required the corporate to develop a number of the most superior aviation know-how to that time in historical past together with novel powerplant designs, high-strength airframe componentry, and an revolutionary flight management pc.
Dornier constructed three airframes with a gaggle designation Do 31 E (“E” for “Experimental”): the Do 31 E1, the Do 31 E2, and the Do 31 E3. The E1 and the E3 have been flying prototypes, whereas the E2 was a ground-based testbed.
The Do 31 featured a high-mounted primary wing, a cruciform empennage, a capacious fuselage with a ramp-loading cargo system, and retractable tricycle touchdown gear. Its major energy supply: two Rolls-Royce Pegasus BE.53/2 turbofan engines, every of which may produce as much as 15,500 kilos of thrust. Every Pegasus was housed in a nacelle, one beneath both sides of the primary wing, and thrust from every was directed by means of 4 rotating exhaust ports referred to as thrust vectoring nozzles. For complementary thrust and redundancy functions—ought to one of many Pegasus engines fail mid-flight—Dornier crafted wingtip-mounted secondary thrust methods. Every wingtip featured a nacelle that housed 4 vertically oriented Rolls-
Royce RB-162-4D turbojet engines; every engine may generate as much as 4,400 kilos of thrust, for a complete of 17,600 kilos of thrust per wingtip. In whole, the Do 31 was powered by ten engines able to an mixture 66,200 kilos of thrust. Only some different plane in historical past have comprised ten or extra engines, together with Dornier’s Do X, a flying boat that was powered by 12 piston engines.
To supply management of the Do 31 all through all its flight regimes, Dornier developed a particularly important hybrid analog-digital pc, the DO-960. The plane merely could be too unstable to perform with out an ample flight pc that might repeatedly resolve a collection of advanced equations to take care of managed flight. Digital pc know-how and built-in circuit design have been nonetheless of their infancy at this level and never quick sufficient to carry out the particular varieties of options essential (the microprocessor had but to be developed). Dornier engineers solved this immense problem by devising a novel pc system that fused points of analog calculation with parts of digital computation.
The DO-960 maintained plane stability by taking pilot inputs and controlling flight surfaces, energy output of every of the plane’s ten engines, the orientation of its thrust vector nozzles, and quantity of bleed air ducted to nozzles within the plane’s tail. The Do 31 lifted off and hovered with downward-vectored thrust from the Pegasus engines mixed with thrust from its wingtip turbojets. It then transitioned to horizontal flight by means of the rearward rotation of the primary engine’s thrust vector nozzles.
The DO-960 stays one in all historical past’s most notable pc developments and an excellent instance of technological innovation born of necessity. Though hidden inside the confines of the distinctive plane’s type, the pc was one of many Do 31’s most vital, and notable, options.
A NEW BREED TAKES FLIGHT
After years of improvement and floor testing, the Do 31 took its maiden flight in early 1967. The first prototype of the airframe, the Do 31 E1, lifted off on February 10, 1967, powered by simply its two primary engines. In July of 1967, the Do 31 E3 took to the sky utilizing all ten of its engines and carried out a hover. The plane flew more and more advanced and superior operations throughout successive checks within the months that adopted together with transferring backward whereas hovering and rolls whereas in horizontal flight. The demonstrations marked not simply the preliminary flights of a brand new plane, however the first operation of a wholly new breed of plane, a jet-powered VTOL transport. The Do 31 wowed spectators at airshows and set a number of flight data for its class—of which it was the one member.
Regardless of the successes and prospects for business adoption along with army roles, the Do 31 was deserted within the early Seventies. The idea of a jet-powered VTOL Air Power proved too expensive and sophisticated to implement. It stays the primary and solely jet-powered VTOL transport ever to fly.
Piloted by two, the Do 31 had a variety of 1,120 miles, a service ceiling of 35,100 toes above sea stage, and climbed at a fee of three,780 toes per minute. The plane cruised at 348 miles per hour with a prime pace of 377 mph.
NOW AVAILABLE FOR MICROSOFT FLIGHT SIMULATOR PILOTS
The Microsoft Flight Simulator Dornier Do 31 has been expertly recreated for aviators to take pleasure in all through the world. Expertise the joys of lifting off vertically, transitioning to high-speed ahead flight, after which coming to a
hover with precision on this masterpiece of aviation know-how. The sky is looking!
The Dornier Do 31 provides seven liveries: E1 Experimental, E3 Experimental, Olive Inexperienced, Inexperienced Camouflage, Marine Search & Rescue, Xbox Aviators Membership, and Aviators Membership. It’s obtainable right this moment for $14.99.
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