(Dornier) Do B Merkur @·AIRCRAFTUBE

  • Dornier Merkur Dornier Merkur
    Dornier Merkur
  • Luft Hansa's D-580 "Panther" Luft Hansa's D-580 "Panther"
    Luft Hansa's D-580 "Panther"
  • Three-view drawing (NACA, 1927) Three-view drawing (NACA, 1927)
    Three-view drawing (NACA, 1927)
  • Passengers leaving Ad Astra Aero's CH-142 (1927) Passengers leaving Ad Astra Aero's CH-142 (1927)
    Passengers leaving Ad Astra Aero's CH-142 (1927)
  • A Deruluft Merkur A Deruluft Merkur
    A Deruluft Merkur
  • Walter Mittelholzer's CH-171 "Switzerland" Walter Mittelholzer's CH-171 "Switzerland"
    Walter Mittelholzer's CH-171 "Switzerland"
  • CH-171 on floats before the flight to Cape Town (1926) CH-171 on floats before the flight to Cape Town (1926)
    CH-171 on floats before the flight to Cape Town (1926)
  • Mittelholzer's CH-171 at Kigoma, Lake Tanganyika (1927) Mittelholzer's CH-171 at Kigoma, Lake Tanganyika (1927)
    Mittelholzer's CH-171 at Kigoma, Lake Tanganyika (1927)
  • The "Mercurio" ambulance version by CMASA (Marina di Pisa) The "Mercurio" ambulance version by CMASA (Marina di Pisa)
    The "Mercurio" ambulance version by CMASA (Marina di Pisa)
  • D-1686 "Mungo" after its forced landing near Gütersloh (13 June 1930) D-1686 "Mungo" after its forced landing near Gütersloh (13 June 1930)
    D-1686 "Mungo" after its forced landing near Gütersloh (13 June 1930)
  • Replica of D-1103 "Silberfuchs" at the Dornier Museum, Friedrichshafen Replica of D-1103 "Silberfuchs" at the Dornier Museum, Friedrichshafen
    Replica of D-1103 "Silberfuchs" at the Dornier Museum, Friedrichshafen
  • Tail with the Luft Hansa crane Tail with the Luft Hansa crane
    Tail with the Luft Hansa crane

Dornier Merkur

The Dornier Merkur (Mercury), internal designation Do B, was a single-engine, strut-braced high-wing all-metal airliner designed by Claude Dornier and built by Dornier Metallbauten at Friedrichshafen-Manzell from 1925. The final development of the Dornier Komet family of small airliners, it carried a crew of two and six to eight passengers in an enclosed cabin. The Merkur became one of the mainstays of the newly formed Deutsche Luft Hansa, which at one time operated around thirty of them, and was also used in the Soviet Union, Switzerland, Colombia, Brazil and Japan. It is best remembered for the seven world records it set in 1926 and for Walter Mittelholzer's pioneering north-south crossing of Africa by seaplane in 1926-1927.

Design and development

The Komet and Merkur family was born in the difficult context of the Treaty of Versailles. The first Komet (Do C III Komet I, 1921) was essentially a landplane version of the Dornier Delphin flying boat, and was followed by the Komet II and, in 1924, by the larger Komet III (Do B Ral). The Komet III prototype made its first flight on 7 December 1924. Powered by a 360 hp Rolls-Royce Eagle IX, it seated six passengers and reached about 168 km/h, but it remained underpowered because the Inter-Allied Aeronautical Commission of Control limited the engine power allowed in German civil aircraft.

Dornier therefore tested the much more powerful BMW VI V-12 in the Komet III airframe from February 1925. The Allied commission first regarded the type with this engine as a military aircraft, and it was only after the Paris Air Agreement of May 1926 eased the restrictions that the BMW VI could be used freely. To absorb the extra power, the airframe was reinforced and modified: the fin was enlarged, the tailplane bracing struts were deleted, the wing span was increased to 19.6 m and the centre section was shortened. The result was the Do B Merkur. When fitted with the BMW VI, it became known as the Do B Bal Merkur II, a designation also applied to the many Komet IIIs that were later rebuilt to the new standard.

Like all Dornier designs of the period, the Merkur was built mainly of duralumin, with steel used for the most highly stressed parts. The rectangular wing was mounted above the fuselage on short struts and braced by a pair of long struts on each side. The two crew members sat in an open cockpit offset to port, under the leading edge of the wing, while the passengers travelled in a glazed cabin with wicker seats. The fixed main undercarriage and tailskid could be replaced by floats, and the aircraft was designed with mountain routes such as the Alpine crossings in mind. Easy maintenance and repair were among the priorities of the design.

A final production series, the Do B Bal 2, received the geared BMW VIu engine driving a four-blade wooden propeller, together with an enclosed cockpit and improved streamlining. Six of these aircraft (works numbers 173 to 178) were the last Merkurs built. In all, Dornier produced some 50 to 60 aircraft of the Merkur type, a figure that varies according to whether rebuilt Komets are included.

Operational history

World records

In June 1926, a standard Merkur (works number 90, registered CH-145 and later D-982) flown by Walter Mittelholzer and Zimmermann at Dübendorf near Zurich set seven world records for payload, speed and endurance on 24 and 26 June 1926. These records gave the type a considerable international reputation in its first year of service.

Deutsche Luft Hansa

When Deutsche Luft Hansa was created on 6 January 1926 by the merger of Deutscher Aero Lloyd and Junkers Luftverkehr, it inherited nine Komet IIIs from Aero Lloyd, which had been flying them since the spring of 1925. On 6 April 1926, the first day of Luft Hansa's scheduled operations, the Komet III D-580 "Panther", flown by Karl Noack, left Berlin-Tempelhof at 9 a.m. with six passengers for a four-hour non-stop flight to Cologne. Between November 1926 and April 1927, the Komet IIIs were rebuilt as Merkurs, and new aircraft joined the fleet.

Luft Hansa gave its Merkurs the names of wild animals, such as "Panther", "Luchs", "Wildkatze", "Hyäne", "Gepard", "Silberfuchs", "Weissfuchs", "Nerz" or "Mungo". The type flew on most of the important domestic routes, including Berlin-Munich via Leipzig and Nuremberg, Hamburg-Kiel, and Munich-Nuremberg-Frankfurt-Cologne-Düsseldorf-Essen-Amsterdam, as well as on international services such as the one to Prague. In 1929 alone, the Merkurs covered 1,726,422 km, or 19.1% of the airline's total mileage, and they flew some 10.5 million km for Luft Hansa in all. One aircraft, D-711, had flown 500,000 km and almost 5,000 hours without an accident by January 1932.

The career of the Merkur at Luft Hansa was marked by the crash of D-585 near Schleiz on 23 September 1927, when a wing strut failed in flight and all six occupants were killed, among them the German ambassador to the United States, Ago von Maltzan. The whole fleet was grounded until the spring of 1928 and received additional struts, nicknamed "Maltzan-Streben". From March 1934, the Merkurs were progressively transferred to the DVS (Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule) pilot school, and the type was withdrawn from scheduled service in August 1934. The last three school aircraft were retired in September 1938.

Soviet Union

The Ukrainian airline Ukrvozdukhput used Dornier Komets and Merkurs from 1925 on its routes from Kharkiv, and the German-Soviet airline Deruluft, half-owned by Luft Hansa, received its first Merkurs in 1927 for the Berlin-Königsberg-Moscow route. Because of this shareholding, aircraft were exchanged between the two companies: the six Do B Bal 2s, for example, were transferred from Deruluft to Luft Hansa in the spring of 1929.

Mittelholzer's flight across Africa

The Swiss airline Ad Astra Aero operated two Merkurs, CH-142 and CH-171. The second, a Merkur II named "Switzerland", was fitted with floats, a larger rudder and a cabin arranged as a living area with a darkroom for the most famous flight of the type. On 7 December 1926, Walter Mittelholzer took off from the Zurichhorn seaplane base with his co-pilot and mechanic Hans Hartmann, the writer René Gouzy and the geologist Arnold Heim. Flying via the Mediterranean, Egypt, the Nile valley and the great lakes of East Africa, they reached Cape Town on 21 February 1927, after 77 days. It was the first north-south crossing of Africa by air in a seaplane, and Mittelholzer's photographs, book ("Afrikaflug") and film made him famous worldwide. CH-142 passed to Swissair when Ad Astra Aero merged with Balair in 1931, and was withdrawn in 1932.

Other operators

In Colombia, SCADTA (the forerunner of Avianca) used Merkur floatplanes on the Magdalena River, where the waterway served as a natural runway. In Brazil, the Condor Syndikat (Syndicato Condor) operated at least one Merkur, which was later sold to Varig. The type was also exported to Japan and China, and Kawasaki built the Komet III under licence. A landplane ambulance version was designated Do T, and an ambulance Merkur named "Mercurio" was built in Italy by CMASA at Marina di Pisa, the factory where Dornier produced its Wal flying boats.

Variants

  • Do B Ral Komet III : Predecessor of the Merkur, six-passenger airliner powered by a Rolls-Royce Eagle IX (360 hp) or a Napier Lion; first flight 7 December 1924.
  • Do B Merkur I : Production successor of the Komet III (1925), with a revised fin and longer-span wing.
  • Do B Bal Merkur II : Merkur fitted with the BMW VI engine (450 to 600 hp); name also applied to re-engined Komet IIIs.
  • Do B Bal 2 : Last production series with geared BMW VIu engine, four-blade propeller and enclosed cockpit; six built.
  • Do T : Landplane ambulance version of the Komet/Merkur.

Operators

  • Brazil : Syndicato Condor, Varig.
  • China.
  • Colombia : SCADTA.
  • Germany : Deutscher Aero Lloyd, Deutsche Luft Hansa, Deutsche Verkehrsfliegerschule (DVS).
  • Italy : CMASA (ambulance version).
  • Japan.
  • Soviet Union : Deruluft, Ukrvozdukhput.
  • Switzerland : Ad Astra Aero, Swissair.

Accidents and incidents

  • 1 June 1926 : D-774 crashed at Bleckede during a training flight between Hamburg and Magdeburg; one killed.
  • 23 September 1927 : Luft Hansa's D-585 lost a wing near Schleiz on the Berlin-Munich service after a strut failed; all six occupants, including ambassador Ago von Maltzan, were killed.
  • 30 May 1929 : SCADTA's floatplane C-27 "Pedro Nel Ospina" made an emergency landing on the Magdalena River near El Banco after a carburettor fire; the passengers and mail were saved, but the aircraft was destroyed.
  • 12 September 1929 : CCCP-211 stalled and crashed in a street at Sukhumi while trying to return after engine problems; two killed.
  • 13 June 1930 : Luft Hansa's D-1686 "Mungo" made a forced landing near Gütersloh after an engine failure, ran into trees at the edge of the field and was written off; no injuries.
  • 13 June 1931 : Luft Hansa's D-1455 "Weissfuchs" crashed at Saarbrücken in fog shortly after take-off for Cologne; all four occupants were killed.
  • 22 June 1934 : Luft Hansa's D-1445 "Nerz" crashed in bad weather at Chausseehaus, north of Wiesbaden, on the Cologne-Frankfurt service; one passenger killed.

Replica

No original Merkur survives. A full-size static replica, built in Hungary and painted by Lufthansa Technik in the colours of Luft Hansa's D-1103 "Silberfuchs" (works number 88), complete with wicker passenger seats, has been on display at the Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen since its opening on 24 July 2009.

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This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Dornier Merkur of Wikipedia ( authors )

Dornier Merkur

  • Role : Airliner.
  • Manufacturer : Dornier Metallbauten (Friedrichshafen).
  • Designer : Claude Dornier.
  • First flight : 1925 (Komet III: 7 December 1924).
  • Introduction : 1926 with Deutsche Luft Hansa.
  • Retired : 1938 (last DVS school aircraft).
  • Status : retired.
  • Primary users :
  • Number built : about 50 to 60 (including rebuilt Komet IIIs).
  • Developed from : Dornier Komet.
  • Variants :
    • Do B Merkur I.
    • Do B Bal Merkur II.
    • Do B Bal 2.
    • Do T (ambulance).

    Specifications (Merkur II)

  • Crew: two (pilot and mechanic).
  • Capacity: six to eight passengers.
  • Length: 41 ft 0 in (12.50 m).
  • Wingspan: 64 ft 4 in (19.60 m).
  • Height: 11 ft 8 in (3.56 m).
  • Wing area: 667 sq ft (62.0 m²).
  • Empty weight: 4,630 lb (2,100 kg).
  • Gross weight: 7,937 lb (3,600 kg).
  • Powerplant: One BMW VI water-cooled V-12 piston engine.
  • Power: 600 hp (450 kW).
  • Propellers: 2-bladed fixed-pitch (4-bladed wooden propeller on the Do B Bal 2).
  • Maximum speed: 124 mph (200 km/h, 108 kts).
  • Cruise speed: 112 mph (180 km/h, 97 kts).
  • Range: 466 mi (750 km, 405 nmi).
  • Service ceiling: 17,100 ft (5,200 m).

— — — = = — — —

This text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Source : Article Dornier Merkur of Wikipedia ( authors )
Dornier Do B Merkur : Your comments on this subject
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