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the same way the Isle of Man - set between England, Ireland and
Scotland - has grown from its early Viking roots to embrace
steam and electric railways, cars and motorcycles as well as the ships
and aircraft that allow it to "import trippers, export kippers" and do
so much else besides. Indeed, just as Gloucestershire has its own
distinctive breeds of cattle, pig and sheep, so the Isle of Man has
cats that don't wave their tails in your face when they jump up on you!
More
specifically, both Staverton in Gloucestershire and Ronaldsway on the
Isle of Man became home to Dowty Equipment Limited factories in the
middle of the 20th Century - Iloman Engineering being founded by the
arrival of Dowty sub-contractor employees otherwise made jobless after
the Luftwaffe's "Moonlight Sonata" raid on Coventry on the night of 14
November 1940. It was also at his Isle of Man home that Sir George Dowty himself died on 7 December 1975.
Flying from Blackpool his DH 61 Giant Moth G-AAEV, named 'Youth of Britain', was powered by a single Bristol
Jupiter engine of 500 h.p. and could carry 14 passengers over short
distances.
Sir Alan was met by civic dignitaries and he wasted no time in taking
the Mayor and his party into the air. At a reception Sir Alan urged that
immediate steps be taken to provide Douglas with an aerodrome and also a base
for seaplanes, offering to advise on the best sites.
The following morning he
was back at Ronaldsway to fulfil the second object of his visit which was to
give flights to young people of the Island. The children, 131 altogether, were
chosen through Uncle Jack's Club in the Isle of Man Examiner. After their flight
each was presented with a certificate as a souvenir of Sir Charles Wakefield's
gift flight in the 'Youth of Britain.'
Unfortunately,
about half the excited children were to be disappointed because the DH
61 hit a rut while taxying causing damage to the undercarriage. Tackle
from Qualtrough's timber yard, Castletown, was brought to hoist up the
machine. New parts were needed so Sir Alan departed by Packet steamer
on his way to the de Havilland's works at Hatfield. By noon on Monday
however he had returned with the necessary components, repairs were
effected and, after farewells, Sir Alan left for the return to
Blackpool.
Also on board were
the first known Manx passengers to across the Irish Sea. They were Mr. R. C.
Stephens, a journalist and future member of the House of Keys, and Tom Sheard,
the first Manxman to win a Tourist Trophy motorcycle race. Both were issued with cotton wool to deaden the
sound of the engine and a third passenger was a Manx kitten in a basket. The fifty minute journey was via Maughold Head and
Walney Island - near Barrow in Furness - to shorten the sea crossing and they arrived at Blackpool's Stanley Park in
time to join in the celebrations to mark the opening of the new aerodrome.
Among the Manx2.com aircraft often seen on these services at Staverton are twin engined Dornier 228-200 which have proved a favourite with passengers across the world. Every one of 19 seats is by a window which is larger than those found in other aircraft in its class, facets of design which reflect the Dornier company's proud history of technical innovation.
Flugzeugbau Friedrichsafen had combined factories at Weingarten, Warnemunde and the former Zeppelin shed at Manzell and the proximity of Lake Constance no doubt influenced Dornier's continuing prominence in the making of large all-metal flying boats such as the 1924 vintage Wal ( German for "Whale" ) and the giant 12 engined Do X of 1929. Indeed, such Dornier flying boats as the Do22, Do 18 and Do 24 saw service in several armed forced around the world as well as - ultimately - Germany.
Dornier also built a series of successful land planes, including the Komet (Comet) and Merkur (Mercury) that were used by Luft Hansa and other European carriers during the 1920s and early 1930s.
Dornier built its aircraft outside Germany during much of this period, in compliance with the restrictions placed on German aircraft manufacturers by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles. Foreign factories licence-building Dornier products included CMASA and Piaggio in Italy, CASA in Spain, Kawasaki in Japan and Aviolanda in the Netherlands. Once the Nazi government came to power and abandoned the treaty's restrictions, Dornier resumed production in Germany.
Nicknamed The Flying Pencil, it was built on the same design principles as the contemporary British Handley Page Hampden bomber and indeed the Do17 was to evolve into the same role with the newly emergent Luftwaffe in 1935. In 1937 Dornier Do17s of the Nazi Condor Legion - with red bands around the swastikas on their tails - assisted the rebel forces of General Francisco Franco in their ultimate victory in the Spanish Civil War.
Apart from the technological dead end of the 1967 vintage experimental Dornier Do-31(pictured above) - whose two Rolls Royce Pegasus engines proved too noisy for vertical take offs and landings in airline service and is now in Deutsches Museum, Munich - Dornier quickly re-established itself with highly successful small short take off and landing transports such as the single engined high wing Do 27 of 1955 ( the first post War production German aircraft ) and twin engined Do 28.
The rounded six seat A and B versions of the Dornier 28 were developed into the more rugged 12 seat Do 28D Skyservant - with rectangular fuselage and engine nacelles - which first flew on 23 February 1966. In Federal German military service from 1971 Dornier 28Ds replaced Percival Pembrokes and were themselves replaced from 1994 by much quieter turboprop powered Dornier 228s which also vibrated a good deal less.
Indeed, in 1997, the Hungarian engineer Andreas Gál developed a skydiver-friendly Do 28D conversion with two Walter M601-D2 turboprops and modified three-blade propellers. Of the seven aircraft so converted, HA-ACY is pictured above.
In 1985 Dornier became a member of the Daimler-Benz group, integrating its aeronautic
assets with the parent company. As part of this transaction, Lindauer DORNier GmbH, was spun-off,
creating a separate, family-owned firm, concentrating on textile machinery
design and manufacturing. The rest of the company was splited in to several
subsidiaries for Defence, Satellites, Medical technology and Aircraft.
In 1996 the majority of Dornier Aircraft was acquired by the American
company Fairchild Aircraft -maker of
the A-10 Thunderbolt - forming Fairchild Dornier GmbH from
8 August 8 2000.
The last Dornier 228 was rolled out in 1998 but Fairchild Dornier became insolvent early in 2002 and eventually became part of EADS.
A new and highly modified survey aircraft is the latest tool to help study our environment from the skies.
The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) is to lease a Dornier 228 to replace the Piper Navajo Chieftain that has given valiant service in earth observation for the past 16 years.
Because the new aeroplane can fly further and carry more equipment, it will extend the environmental research programmes supported by NERC beyond the usual land and freshwater studies. We will now be able to produce digital images of shelf seas to help monitor, for example, marine algal blooms. An entirely new range of observations will be possible in earth and atmospheric sciences; we can now study the Earth's gravity and its magnetic field and monitor pollution from ground level up to the stratosphere.
Access to the aircraft is the result of an agreement between NERC and the German Aerospace Research Centre, Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V (DLR). Both organisations participate in European Concerted Action Programmes aimed at increasing co-operation between researchers and ensuring efficient use of research aircraft across Europe.
The agreement between NERC and DLR is being finalised this week. The Memorandum of Understanding covers scientific co-operation between NERC and DLR, and includes the three-year lease of the Do228 to NERC on a non-commercial basis. The Do228 will be delivered to NERC in October 2000, and following trials, will be operational in January 2001.
NERC looks forward to an increase in collaboration with European colleagues in using this exciting new facility for environmental research, survey and monitoring.
Data from D-CALM is processed by the NERC's data analysis team at the Plymouth Marine Laboratories and then archived at the National Earth Observation Data Centre (NEODC). Currently the ARSF provides radiometrically corrected hyperspectral data from the AISA Eagle and Hawk instruments; ground height information from the Leica ALS50-II; and digital photography. Additionally the Dornier's atmospheric instrument capability compliments that offered by the NERC Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements.
The ARSF supports projects across the UK and the North coast of continental Europe, though the facility has supported campaigns with locations as distant as Svalbard, Ethiopia, Chile and Australia. This service is available free of charge to the UK research community (subject to peer review) and the facility is a member of the European Fleet for Airborne Research.
First flown on 6 December 1991, the Dornier 238 combines the same basic supercritical wing of the Dornier 228 with an all new fuselage section for three abreast seating (offering more width per passenger than the 727/737). Market research in the mid 1980s identified a need for such a modern fast-cruising regional turboprop airliner and development work began in 1988.
Composite materials were used in a number of areas to reduce weight including the tail and the blades on the Hartzell propellers while the flight deck featured a five screen Honeywell Primus 2000 EFIS avionics system capable of Category IIIa landings with a head-up display.
Industrial partners on the 328 included Daewoo Heavy Industries (fuselage), Aermacchi (nose), Westland (nacelles) and Israel Aircraft Industries (wing), accounting for 40% of the aircraft's construction.
Variants of the 328 were the initial production standard 328-100 - first delivered in October 1993 - the standard 328-110 with a larger dorsal fin, heavier weights and greater range, the 328-120 with PW119C engines and improved short field performance and the 328-130 with progressive rudder authority reduction with increasing airspeed.
The last 328 was delivered to Air Alps Aviation in Austria in October 1999.
