I slept particularly
badly, toothache, or possibly an ear infection, was very painful. In the end I
got up and took some pain killers.
It was yet another grey
and overcast day first thing. We were on the road before 9:00 after checking
out and finding the camping ground manager had spent a year living in Nelson
and Brightwater. We drove the short distance to Friedrichshafen airport and
parked Mabel and Smarty in the motorhome parking area at the Dornier museum. A
taxi was already parked there, the driver was returning from some nearby
bushes. He looked at Mabel, then turned to us saying “merhaba” with a big smile
on his face. He had spotted the two Turkish flags we were still displaying on
Mabel’s dashboard. He was quite perplexed when we returned the merhaba but then
spoke in English. We explained how we had come by the flags, it turned out the taxi
driver was Kurdish and originally from not far from the Syrian border.
As if we needed it, the
Dornier museum was confirmation the Germans do a good museum. The museum told
the story of Claude Dornier, the aircraft produced by the company and the move
from aircraft production to research and development across a broad spectrum, and was excellent.
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Dornier Museum With Dornier Do 31 Outside
Our visit started in a
movie theatre with eight projectors, two on the front wall and three each on
the adjacent side walls. The
presentation was extremely well done summarising the Dornier story from Claude
Dornier’s early days working for Zeppelin developing very large flying boats,
through the development of VTOL and commuter aircraft and the move to research
and development. Dornier do not now produce aircraft, they are now specialists
in systems analysis, electronics and much more in high tech fields.
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| Movie Theatre |
The museum had very good
displays of model Dornier aircraft as well as lots of aviation artefacts. A
large section was devoted to the second world war with workers accounts
translated into English of life in the aircraft factories. While Dornier
welcomed the economic benefits to his company of the development of the
Luftwaffe, he was not a Nazi supporter. He avoided joining the Nazi party until
1940 when he did so in fear he would lose his job if he didn’t, but he never
wore any party insignia. Hitler and Göering regarded Dornier with suspicion and
never visited his factories.
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| One of Many Display Cases |
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| Flying Boat Wooden Propellor |
The development of VTOL
aircraft featured strongly in the 1960s stimulated by military needs to be as
independent of fixed infrastructure as possible. The Dornier Do31 was the only
jet transport aircraft in the world with a VTOL capability. Two prototypes set
several world records before the test programme was concluded in 1969.
Jane is not the most
enthusiastic of visitors to aircraft museums and returned to Mabel leaving me
to it after we had toured most of the museum’s upper floor. Consequently, I
didn’t want to hang around too long seeing the remainder of the museum.
The main exhibition hall
on the ground floor was largely taken up by aircraft exhibits, not all of which
were Dornier, e.g. a Bell ‘Huey’. There was also a very good display dealing
with the giant Do X flying boat powered by 12 engines (6 tractor and 6 pusher)
that first flew in 1929. It created a world record by carrying 169 passengers
and crew although it only achieved an altitude of 200 metres and the passengers
had to move from one side to another to assist the aircraft to turn. It would
be true to say the aircraft never delivered its potential. Having had a wing
consumed by fire while in Lisbon en route to a promotional tour of the United
States. Other mishaps ensued and it was 10 months before it reached New York.
There it spent 9 months while the engines were overhauled. The Great Depression
put paid to hopes of selling the aircraft in America and it returned to Germany
where it was taken over from Dornier by Lufthansa. They fared little better
tearing off the aircraft’s tail section while landing on a reservoir en route
to Istanbul. Thereafter, it became a museum exhibit until it was destroyed in a
bombing raid in World War II.
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| Indoor Display |
Outside the museum was a
static display of aircraft including a Do31 that I was able to have a good look
at. It was very ingenious with vertical lift engines on the wing tips with two
underwing engines having swivel novels similar to a Harrier. Other aircraft on
display included a Breguet Atlantic that I clambered around inside.
However, it was unclear if it had any connection with Dornier, I think not.
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| Breguet Atlantic |
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| Atlantic Bomb Bay |
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| Atlantic Cockpit |
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| Atlantic Interior |
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| Dornier Do 31 Swivel Nozzles |
These two parked outside were Dorniers:
Late morning we set a
course for Titisee in the Black Forest, we decided I should drive the first leg
as that took us back through Friedrrichshafen. We hadn’t gone very far before I
had to pull over and ask Jane to drive. My tooth was hurting so much I was
finding it very difficult to concentrate. I took a couple of Anadin that soon
had the pain under control.
After stopping to fill
with LPG (filling stations are not that common in Germany) we pulled over for
lunch of bread, dips and cheese. Afterwards I felt well enough to drive again
and got us to Camping Bankenhof at the southern end of the lake.
The camping ground was
very busy (as had been the roads) and we found out later it was a public
holiday (Day of German Unity). However, we had wi-fi inside Mabel at long last,
the facilities were great and our fellow residents were very friendly. In
particular, we had a long chat with a German guy living in Basel. He had
spotted the Turkish flags sprouting from Mabel’s dashboard and had previously
worked in Istanbul for a drugs company. He had found that quite a challenging
experience, particularly getting the Turks to understand the importance of
cleanliness in the manufacture of drugs. He also agreed with Derv and sees
Turkey’s President Erdogan taking the country down a muslim sectarian line
mentioning that alcohol is now very difficult to find in Asian Istanbul.
For dinner I cooked a
mushroom and truffle risotto.
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| Today's Trip (144 km) |
