DORNIER FLIES IN SPANISH COLOURS

News April 2019

Markus Rheinländer flying his Spanish Air Forceliveried Dornier Do 27, D-EKFG, near Paderborn- Lippstadt in mid-February.
MIRKO KROGMEIER

After more than four years of intensive restoration, Markus Rheinländer took his Dornier Do 27, D-EKFG, aloft from Paderborn- Lippstadt Airport on 16 February. The 59-yearold machine has been painted as U.9-51, the first Do 27 delivered to the Spanish Air Force, the original prototype having first flown in Spain on 27 June 1955. Although most production examples were built in Germany, 50 more were built in Spain as the CASA 127.

The first German-built Do 27 flew on 17 October 1956. D-EKFG was built in 1960 as Do 27A-4 c/n 471 and flew with Luftwaffe unit Lufttransportgeschwader (Air Transport Squadron) 61 at Penzing, Bavaria as GA+374.

After seeing service with several units in the West German Bundeswehr, the Dornier was retired in 1970. Between 1976 and 2013 it had a second career as a parachute dropping platform at Kiel. Markus Rheinländer was able to acquire the rather tired airframe during 2015 and moved it to the Quax-Flieger hangar at Paderborn, where the Dornier was thoroughly renovated by Markus and numerous helpers from the club.

Now that D-EKFG is back in the air, work on the club’s own Do 27, D-EQXG, is in the final phase, the Quax-Flieger having acquired Do 27A-3 c/n 429 during 2013. It now wears its former livery as LC+155, in which it served during 1959 at the Luftwaffe base at Fassberg. Stefan Schmoll