Dornier has a longstanding tradition in flying boats, culminating in
the giant triple-deck Do X with no less than 12 engines grouped in 6 tandem engine nacelles
on top of the massive wing. The composite twin-turboprop Seastar of Dornier heir
Conrado which up till now hasn't made it to the production stage due to money and hereditary troubles within
the Dornier family was the last attempt to revive this long tradition.
The other not so well-known specialty of the traditional Dornier company (now a part of Fairchild-Dornier and deep into short
to medium range commuter aircraft) are STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) utility aircraft,
starting with the Do 27, a single engined high-wing taildragger with fixed slats along the
leading edge of the wing combined with double-slotted flaps. Some are still active today, particularly
in parachuting.
For
reasons of better safety and performance a twin engined version was dubbed Do 28A and already
had the unique layout of the later 128-6: The engines where mounted on pods protruding from
the floor of the fuselage and the main gear was also attached to these pods. This design allowed
for the wing to be free of lift-reducing engine cowlings and the thrust center of the props
to be approx. in the height of the drag center of the complete aircraft.
From these A/B versions the main production model Do 28D Skyservant evolved
sporting an all-new design, particularly a spacious rectangular section fuselage. Its maiden
flight took place at Dorniers company airfield in Oberpfaffenhofen in Bavaria, Germany
on February 23, 1966. It was particularly popular with the German Luftwaffe (101 aircraft)
and the German Naval Air Arm (20 aircraft), but was also exported to and is at home in all
regions of the world with less sophisticated airport infrastructures, totaling in more than
200 aircraft in 30 countries. It was (and in part still is) used for the following tasks:
- passenger and freight transport
- liaison missions
- sea patrol and coast guard missions
- dropping of parachutists
- SAR operations
- ambulance missions
- photogrammetric survey
- remote sensing missions
"D-IBUF" started out as a Do28D-2 with the serial number 4302. Its first life being that of
Dornier's Company Demonstrator it went through many stages of modification: in this picture which was taken at the 1976 Hannover Air Show
in Germany it is already fitted with external fuel tanks of the later
Do128-2 and 128-6 versions.
The Do28D created an absolutely ear drum busting racket with their unmuffeled
Lycoming piston engines and prop tips brushing very closely by the fuselage. They could well
be heard approaching minutes before they actually came in sight.
For
this reason as well as due to problems in the supply of avgas in some parts of the world Dornier
around 1977/78 modified "D-IBUF" into the so-called Do 28D-5X Turbo-Skyservant prototype and
initially two Avco-Lycoming turboprop engines downrated from 608 to 405 SHP (Shaft Horse Power,
amount of power delivered to the prop, disregarding any surplus thrust generated by the exhaust
gases), shown here at the International Aerosalon at Le Bourget, Paris in 1978.
German sub-title for this Photo of the Do 28D-5X Turbo-Skyservant prototype
from fliegermagazin no.7, July 1979: Workhorse for the Third World: Dorniers young
Turbo-Skyservant
Note that the engine nacelles are still rectangular.
In this side view of the Do 28D-5X Turbo-Skyservant prototype the registration D-IBUF
is visible, as are the external under wing tanks. In the background is one of the many Do 28D
of the German Luftwaffe.
In the course of development the usage of Pratt
& Whittney Canadas extremely popular and dependable
PT6A-110
turboprop engines plus a complete (and in my eyes rather pretty) re-design of the engine nacelles
transformed D-IBUF into the first production Aircraft of the Do 128-6 which made
its maiden flight on March 4 1980:
The above state is the basis for my FS2002 version of "D-IBUF" in roll-out colors which is also contained in this package Do1286V4.zip which you have downloaded. Please note that the front edge of the aerodynamic balancing tab of the rudder still is practically vertical like in the prototype Do 28D-5X Turbo-Skyservant.
The rudder was later replaced by the reverse slanted front edge version of the former Do 28-D. Sometime in 1981 D-IBUF was fitted with and certified for operation with wheel/ski landing gear. This
was due to the Alfred
Wegener Insitute for Polar Research (AWI) actually flying
it down the west coast of Africa to Antarctica dubbed Polar 1 along with the next
derivative of this plane, a Do 228-100 (Polar 2) in 1983/84 on an expedition sponsored by the
German Federal Minister for Research and Development. Sadly Polar 3 (another Do228-100 of the AWI) and its crew of 3 where
shot
down by Frente Polisario guerrillas while overflying the Western Sahara
on its return flight from Antarctica back home on 24 February 1985
D-IBUF however was sold to the Technical
University of Braunschweig to serve as the flying lab of their
Institute of Flight
Guidance and Control. The orange / white / marine blue livery
from the AWI was retained apart from some retouches particularly of the logo on the vertical
stabilizer.
A nose beam in various shapes and sizes (depending on the projects carried
out with it) was added. In its tip it carries a pitot tube type airspeed sensor to allow for
precise airspeed readings. Various other sensors and antennas cover the plane. Inside 19
racks for computers and measuring equipment were installed. For more details on the "goodies"
currently installed in this research aircraft please visit its very own website...
The main FS2002 version of "D-IBUF" (contained in do1286V4.zip) depicts the plane
as it was in July 1999 when I was able to photograph and inspect it. Nowadays (end of 2001) it can also be fitted with two additional pitot tube
booms protruding forward from the wingtips which proved helpful when flying directly behind a Bombardier "Global Express" business jet in tests
concerning its vortex - one of the now four airspeed sensors always has a plausible signal even in such extreme circumstances.
One of the most interesting projects
(from a flight simulation point-of-view) it was involved in so far (around1995) was the so-called
Synthetic Vision, a joint project of the Technical Universities of München
and Braunschweig led by Professor Gottfried Sachs. It is a symbiosis of GPS navigation, a digital
terrain database, a monitor (initially a display helmet with motion sensor) and a kind of flight
"simulator". All combined into a package that reads the current aircraft coordinates
via GPS, positions the virtual aircraft in the same location over the digital terrain database
and projects the resulting pilots virtual view onto the screens of the display helmet.
This would allow virtual VFR approaches to airfields completely covered in fog (as depicted at left approach to Runway 27 at Braunschweig in foggy conditions. The inset shows
the real view from the right side of the cockpit, the display helmet of the pilot filling most
of the view), or to safely follow rugged terrain in low visibility conditions.
The
technology was additionally verified by a flight through the scenic Altmuehl valley in Bavaria,
southern Germany, below the valley ridges precisely along a virtual corridor depicted on the
pilots display helmet.
NASA along with a number of avionics companies is currently working on making this technology affordable and dependable enough for the general (flying) public.
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Power plants |
2 x Pratt & Whitney |
Type of propeller |
Hartzell B3TN-3D |
Number of prop blades |
3 |
Propeller diameter |
2.36 m / 7 ft 9 in |
Wing span |
15.55 m / 51 ft |
Length |
11.41 m / 37 ft 5 in |
Height |
3.9 m / 12 ft 10 in |
Wing area |
29 m² / 312 sq. ft |
Cabin length |
4.10 m / 13 ft 5 in |
Cabin width |
1.37 m / 4 ft 6 in |
Cabin height |
1.52 m / 5 ft |
Cabin area |
5.30 m² / 57 sq. ft |
Cabin volume |
approx. 8 m³ / 283 cu. ft |
Maximum ramp weight |
4380 kg / 9656 lbs |
Maximum take-off weight (MTOW) |
4350 kg / 9590 lbs |
Maximum landing weight |
4140 kg / 9127 lbs |
Maximum payload |
1273 kg / 2806 lbs |
Take-off distance over 50 ft |
554 m / 1817 ft |
Maximum climb speed (2 engine) |
6.4 m/s / 1260 ft/min. |
Maximum climb speed (1 engine) |
0.9 m/s / 177 ft/min. |
Maximum cruise speed |
339 km/h / 183 knots |
Service ceiling |
8580 m / 28150 ft |
Range |
1460 km / 788 NM |
Landing speed |
125 km/h / 67 knots |