Claude Dornier

	Claude Dornier Industrialist
	Claude Dornier was born at Kempten, Germany, May 14th, 1884. His early experience as an engineer in metal construction and superstructures provided excellent background for his later involvement in aircraft construction. Dornier's first exposure to aviation was with the Graf Zepplin Company which he left to form his own company with his brother. They enjoyed immediate success with flying boats and some of the world's earliest, large, all-metal aircraft. His DO X was the largest passenger plane of its time in 1929. The giant twelve-engined craft flew from Germany to New York in 1931. In the following year, Dornier turned his talents to military designs and developed two distinctive thin-fuselaged, twin-engined bombers, the DO 17 and DO 217 which became mainstays of the Luftwaffe's bomber and reconnaissance fleet in World War II. Claude Dornier's vision coupled with his technological skills permitted him to lead the world in the advancement of metal aircraft. He died in 1969.
	Elected to the International Aerospace Hall of Fame 1987