German flying boat Dornier DO J WAL N-25 COBI 1384 - Historical Collection 1:48

Did you know:

• The first flight of the successful Do J Wal aircraft took place on November 6, 1922.
• Engineers from Dornier Flugzeugwerke designed the aircraft as a strut-braced high-wing monoplane with opposing engines mounted on a shared nacelle.
• Stability on water was ensured by side floats patented by Claudius Dornier.
• The aircraft was produced in three modifications for various missions.
• The Militärwal version for a four-member crew was equipped with a front and center-mounted machine gun, the civilian Kabinenwal had space in the front for up to 12 passengers, and the Verkehrswal was designed for transporting mail and cargo.
• According to aviation historians, this Dornier was the greatest commercial success in the history of naval aviation.
• The aircraft’s high quality was also recognized by Norwegian polar explorer R. Amundsen, who chose this aircraft for one of his daring expeditions.
• On May 21, 1925, he took off from Svalbard with the goal of reaching the North Pole, in a group of two aircraft with numbers N-24 and N-25. Other expedition members were Lincoln Ellsworth (the financier), Hjalmar R. Larsen (pilot and navigator), Leif Dietrichson (co-pilot), Karl Feucht (mechanic), and Oskar Omdal (assistant pilot).
• A few hours after taking off from Ny-Ålesund, both aircraft had to make an emergency landing on the ice at approximately 87°44′ N, just under 250 km from the North Pole. The emergency landing caused no injuries, but the real challenges were only beginning.
• One of the aircraft was so badly damaged that repair was impossible.
• The rescue plan was simple: all members of the expedition would squeeze into the remaining functional aircraft and fly back. But that proved to be a problem.
• The terrain at the landing site was rugged. Ice floes cracked and refroze together, creating an uneven surface unsuitable for takeoff.
• Over the next six weeks, the expedition members had to cut and move more than 600 tons of ice and snow to create a narrow corridor for takeoff.
• It was truly a life-or-death situation. The crew did heavy labor with a minimal daily ration of 405 g of food.
• When the runway was ready, the crew planned an afternoon departure after a short rest. Then, the ominous cracking of the ice began again — a sound Karl Feucht described as the devil ripping souls apart in hell.
• Everyone dropped what they were holding and rushed into the aircraft. The crew managed to take off and, after several hours, safely landed at Kongsfjorden in Svalbard.
• Although the expedition failed to reach its goal, surviving in extreme conditions and returning safely was considered a heroic achievement by the public.

Technical specifications:

• dimensions: wingspan 22.00 m, length 17.25 m, height 5.62 m
• empty weight 3,630 kg
• maximum takeoff weight 7,000 kg
• power unit: 12-cylinder Rolls-Royce Eagle IX engine with 265 kW output
• maximum speed 185 km/h
• climb rate 1.5 m/s
• maximum flight altitude 3,500 m
• range 800 km
• crew 3

From the memories of R. Amundsen:

“The landing was rough, the ice was uneven. We knew that if we didn’t get organized quickly, we’d become just another story of the lost in the Arctic. When I returned after six weeks, my personal belongings were wrapped in a sheet like a bundle. People thought we were dead.”