Silver Ghost At Frankfurt

     A DOX 24 one of more than 200 built between 1931 and the mid 1940’s stopped at Frankfurt to recall the landing of the famous 12-engine Dornier DOX on October 04, 1932 on the nearby Main River.
     The DO-24 is also featured as part of the International Aviation Fair “Airtec” taking place for the first time in Frankfurt this month.

Pictured on the Rhein Main Air Base last week this DO 24 was piloted by Iren Dornier, grandson of famous Claude Dornier.
     Herr Dornier owns and operates an island hopping airline in the Philippines where he lives and operates this rare one-of-a-kind flying beauty.     

Looking all the world like a tri-motored version of the Consolidated Commodore (later PBY Catalina), the DO 24 carried tons and tons of military supplies and also was a featured vehicle for German Army missions all over Europe and the Mediterranean.
     It was a regular and welcome “Feldpost Carrier” moving mail and often executing heroic missions against impossible odds including lifting 80 shipwrecked people aboard one flight with only regular 24 seats.
     DO24 could lift about 10 tons although the airplane never served in a strictly air cargo role.
     A rare and uplifting sight out of the past.
     DO24 was a sleek flier that showed the way ahead.
     Worth noting the aforementioned DOX that flew around the world in 1929 survived every kind of flight challenge but was lost after a bombing raid destroyed much of the Berlin Museum during the closing days of WWII.