Dornier Do 23

History of Dornier Do 23

During the rearmament of Germany in the 1930s, the country sponsored a number of projects that clearly violated the Treaty of Versailles that emerged after the First World War (1914-1918). The Luftwaffe bomber unit eventually received some attention and several designs were submitted, including the Dornier Do 23.

The Do 23 was a follow-up design to the 1932 Do 11 heavy bomber, as earlier builds had persistent problems. The short-lived Do 13 model also appeared around the same period, but the Do 23 was a more extensively modified model and managed to fix some issues.

The aircraft features a straight high wing plane with a conventional tail (single vertical tail, low-level aircraft), fixed tail-tow landing gear (with painted main wheels) and leading edge engine nacelles (each wing ). The fuselage has panel sides and accommodates crew positions and internal bomb bays forward of the cockpit, along its length. Defensive armament is armed with 3 x 7.92mm MG-15 machine guns - one on the nose, another on the back and the last on the ventral side. The aircraft is certified to carry up to 2,200 pounds of traditional airdrops.

A typical crew arrangement is four.

The powerplant of choice became 2 BMW VIU V12 liquid-cooled engines with 750 hp each. Performance specs include a top speed of 160 mph, a range of up to 930 miles and a service ceiling of 13,780 feet. Curb weight is 12,345 lbs and maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) is 20,282 lbs.

The dimensions are 18.8 meters long, 25.6 meters wingspan and 5.4 meters high.

The

Do 23 prototype first flew in 1934 and brought some handling improvements, although the bomber platform was noticeably underpowered. Nonetheless, the model was ordered for serial production, managing a pre-war 282 aircraft before the end of its operation.

The first production models were called "Do 23F", and an improved version with a better engine (with glycol cooling) appeared as "Do 23G".

Although they were in a rather obsolete state at the start of World War II in September 1939, the aircraft were still in service in some numbers and initially fell into the hands of the Czechoslovak Air Force. Part of the German fleet was also handed over to the Hungarian Air Force.

In general, by the time the war was in full swing, the bombers had been completely eliminated and replaced in the German inventory by more suitable players such as the Heinkel He 111, Junkers Ju 88 and Dornier's own Do 17 - All other places detailed on this page.

DORNIER Do 23 size

Basic

Production

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Performance

Performance

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