Pictures of an rare german X-plane

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Thanks for that.
What's in the background at around the 45" mark? I'm sure I should know:)
Cheers
Steve
 
Great video, thanks for posting it! The plane has a brief blurb in Luftwaffe X-Planes by Manfred Griehl. It states it was used for testing the Do 335 (I assume the concept?) and was basically a 1/2.5 scale model of a Do 17 with a 80hp motor.
 
Fascinating clip. Designed to trial the drive shaft for the Do 335's rear mounted propeller.

"This unconventional layout was patented by Dr Ing Claudius Dornier in 1937, and, to test its feasibility, the Goppingen Go 9 was built by Schemp-Hirth at Wusterburg. The Go 9, D-EBYW was a small experimental machine with a single 80 hp Hirth HM 60R engine mounted in the fuselage aft of the cockpit and drivinga four blade airscrew by means of an extension shaft. The Go 9 was successfully tested in 1940 and spurred the Dornier design team to produce a fighter employing the tandem engine layout."

J.R.Smith and Anthony Kay, German Aircraft of the Second World War.
 
The Go 9s first flight was in June 1941,not 1940, according to Eddie Creek writing in 2006,nearly 35 years after the book quoted above. As he was involved in that earlier publication I think we can take that as an update :) The rest still stands though it's worth adding that the entire Go 9 research project was funded by Dornier,not the RLM.

The Go 9 was towed into the air by a Do 17 M (CO+JB) visible in the background of the linked video at about 1'38".

The only man to fly the Go 9 was Hermann Quenxler,Diploma Ingenieur and Flugbaumeister who joined Dornier in 1936. He also test flew the Do 18,Do 24 and Do 26 flying boats and the Do 17 series of bombers before joining Hans Dieterle to carry out trials of the Do 335 prototypes. Despite a reputation as a nazi sympathiser he moved to the USA after the war.

In 1945 the Go 9 was trucked to Weilheim/Teck where it was to be used to test tricycle undercarriages for the RLM but with the addition of test equipment and sensors proved too heavy to fly. It was set on fire by freed forced labourers before US troops found it and completely destroyed.

Cheers

Steve
 
Would that be the Classic Publications book on the Do 335, Steve? Oooh, I want a copy of that!

Yes indeed,number 13 in the series.

I have endeavoured to buy the series as they become available since it doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that they will go for silly money a few years down the line. I regret missing a few because I thought,at the time,that they were outside my area of interest....doh!!!

I still doff my cap to those guys that started researching this stuff way back in the 70s. Most of the information in the book you quoted is still valid 30 + years later,albeit with the odd update,like that first flight.

Cheers

Steve
 
Thanks Steve, I've got the Me 262 and Me 163 books from Air Classic, but I want the Do 335, and Fw 200 - aww heck, I'd like 'em all. :)

Yep, Putnam's series were/are a great resource and, as you said the odd error has crept in, but I still collect them for their intrinsic value. Odd thing happened once whilst having a pint in a pub in Edinburgh a number of years ago now; I was out with a couple of mates and we were talking aircraft (eat crisps, drink beer, talk shite...) and this guy leans over and asks about our common interest; he was the son of Alec Imrie, who did a whole heap of research on Great War aircraft and provided material and photos for the WW1 equivalent to the above Putnam. Interesting chap; he had an interest in the old stuff like his pa; good night out.
 

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