Chris Goss tells the story of the Dornier Do 26 flying boats which were intended for Deutsche Lufthansa but assigned to the Luftwaffe.
This Do 26 of Sonderstaf el Tranzocean was Werk Nummer 794, the fourth aircraft manufactured. Its eventual fate is unknown.
Key Collection
On October 1, 1936, the German Air Ministry (Reichsluftfahrtministerium) issued a requirement for what was described as a “four-engined trans-ocean flying boat”. However, since as early as July 1936, Dornier-Werke had been designing just such a craft for Deutsche Lufthansa (DLH). Their design was for a gull-winged aircraft with a crew of four, capable of carrying a payload of 1,100lb (500kg) or four passengers on the DLH Lisbon to New York route.
