WHAT DO YOU KNOW

By Christian Gerbich, Hamburg, Germany (gerbich@web.de)

I have been looking into cards issued by the Dornier company. As many will know, due to its unique aircraft, (Dornier Wal, Dornier X, DO31 (first and only VTOL (Vertical takeoff and landing) transport aircraft), Dornier is/was one of the most interesting manufacturer in civil german aviation. In addition to pre-1945 activities Dornier was also the builder of the first post-war aircraft built in Germany - the DO27. The maiden flight took place on 16. October 1956. Although this small aircraft was not comparable to earlier projects of Dornier it marked the beginning of the very successful strategy to focus on small prop aircraft with short takeoff and landing (STOL) qualities. Later on Dornier developed famous aircraft types, like DO228 later on DO328 and finally DO728. But I recently found cards of earlier twin engiined designs, uniquely featuring engines on front fuselage stalks.

The backs of the cards tell us that these aircraft are Dornier Skyservants and offer some technical details, e.g. minimum length of the runway for takeoff and landing is 170 and 180 m respectively. Research on the registrations on the cards (D-IBUN and N6009C) reveals that the full type designation is Dornier DO28D-1 Skyservant. Furthermore the WWW tells us that D-IBUN was lastly noted on 6. Dec. 1968 by crashing at Sonderburg. However nothing could be found about N6009C with the "Washington" sticker on fuselage. Does anybody know the story behind the sticker?

(The answer lies in Ron Davies “Commuter Airlines of the U.S” which lists Washington Airlines as operating the Do28D 1968-9 on a service linking the 3 Washington DC area airports Baltimore, Washington National and Washington Dulles – Ed)

The Dornier DO28 was a twin development of the above mentioned DO27. Starting with DO28A-1, the DO28B-1 the final Skyservant (version D) appeared in 1966 as a transporter or 12 pax configuration. Beside some individual operators the D-version was used by German Air Force and Navy. Later on several military operators worldwide used the DO28 (Turkey, Greece, Israel, Nigeria, Yugoslavia, Kenia, Zambia, Morocco). Now I come to the other reason why I placed this article in this section. As can be seen from the back scans both cards were issued by Dornier. Again no number or year are on the back, but they should be of the late sixties. This is the first time I become aware that Dornier issued earlier than the DO228 and DO328 cards. So, do you know of more Dornier issued cards of the pre DO228 era? Secondly, although Dornier built more than 300 DO28, postcards of that type seems to be rare. My own collection reveals only a single publisher card (Prop Card PC-093) depicting one of three Seair's DO28 in 1995. I can only find a few other airlines that were operating DO28. These are: Seair (Philippines), Aero Ferinco (Mexico), Aero Sotravia (France); Aerogal (Ecuador), Air Nootka (floats; Canada), Air Silver (Turkey), Asmara Air Service (Eritrea), Bik Surveys (Eritrea), Isle Royale Seaplane (floats; USA), Ministic Air (Canada), Penas (Indonesia), Searca (Colombia), THK (Turkey), Transoriente (Colombia).

Does anybody has postcards in his/her collection depicting DO28 in airlines livery. Are there any airline issued cards of the DO28?

<< back (The cards are out there)

next (Worth a Second Glance)>>