# A strange aircraft



## Mariano (Jun 26, 2007)

I found a picture of this strange aircraft. It´s seems to be a german plane.


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## Cyrano (Jun 26, 2007)




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## SoD Stitch (Jun 26, 2007)

Yes, it's a Dornier, I believe. It was a contemporary of the experimental Bell VTOL aircraft, which itself was a progenitor of the V-22 Osprey. I believe the wingtip pods contained the vertical-lift jets, and the pods in the middle of the wing had the forward-propulsion engines.


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## DerAdlerIstGelandet (Jun 26, 2007)

Yeap and it can be seen at the Deutsches Museum in Munich. I have a pic somewhere of me standing next to it.


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## Cyrano (Jun 26, 2007)




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## Mariano (Jun 26, 2007)

That´s fine DerAdlerIstGelandet.


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## Graeme (Jun 30, 2007)

Mariano said:


> I found a picture of this strange aircraft. It´s seems to be a german plane.



From the experience gained with the Dornier Do 31E, the Dornier Do 231 was proposed in response to a German Federal government requirement for a civil and military V/STOL transport. The winning design from five others, it was expected to be flying by the late 1970s. Not to be.


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## timshatz (Jun 30, 2007)

The 231 is a good looking design. Looks like it would be a jack of all trades with the capacity of something like a 121.


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## MP-Willow (Jul 24, 2007)

Some nice pics. I would be worried about the wing stress on liftoff with the engins outboard of the forward flight ones. But that is just my impression without any test numbers.


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