What Went Wrong With Germany's Insane Hover Transport?

Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) refers to aircraft that can take-off, hover, and land vertically. To this day, the Dornier Do-31 remains the largest VTOL jet to take to the skies and the world’s only VTOL jet lift transport.

Throughout the 1960’s, several countries launched ambitious programs to develop VTOL jets. The promise of freeing jets from needing runways to operate offered huge military advantages. In the opening hours of a conflict, runways were going to be the first targets, potentially rendering entire air forces inoperable. But VTOL jets could operate without runways, using small forward operating bases to stage operations.

Although Britain led the way with the development of the Harrier Jump Jet, Germany set out to build something even more ambitious, the world’s first vertical jet lift transport. The Do 31 would combine the speed and range of a jet with the versatility of a helicopter. A plane that could deliver supplies and personnel to remote forward operating bases and support forces out in the field.

The Do 31 utilized two vectored-thrust turbofans and eight lift jets in wing-tip pods. Together the 10 jets could generate an incredible 66,000 pounds of thrust to facilitate vertical or short take-off and landing operations. In forward flight, the lift jets would be shut off and the Do 31 would fly like a conventional plane. The aircraft could reach speeds of over 700km an hour and carry 36 fully equipped troops or nearly six tons of cargo. An
unprecedented combination of speed, range and lifting capacity.

As development of the Do-31 progressed, some even saw the potential for vertical jet lift technology to revolutionize civil aviation. VTOL airliners would operate from helipads, maybe even directly from building rooftops. But developing the world’s first VTOL jet transport would be fraught with enormous technical challenges, and as the Cold War evolved, VTOL capable jets became less of a strategic priority. Despite numerous test flights and proof of concept, the project was ultimately cancelled in 1970.

Select footage courtesy the AP Archive:

Special thanks to Nick Arehart for helping clean up our audio:

Thanks for watching!

[grimsville]

Man quality over quantity is way better than quantity over quality. your videos are really worth the wait keep up the good work!

[samuelmatheson]

War: *ends*
Germany:" well, back to building wonder waffles

[Betterhose]

"Dammit, we can't get that plane to lift off the ground. We must be missing an important detail."
"Hummingbirds have a long pointy beak. Maybe that's what gives them their unique abilities."
"You heard him. But a long pointy beak on that plane!"

[aviationlba]

He doesn’t upload often, but when he does... we remember how it is always worth the wait!

[crucial]

So you want a jet or a helicopter?
Germans: *Y E S*

[houselemuellan]

Germany: makes warplanes again
Everyone else: *Sweats*

[MajorGeneralVeers]

World: Ok Germany, how have you changed your behavior?

Germany: And for my next Wunderwaffen I present a VTOL air force!

[BenjoKazooie]

Rest of the aviation community: "Why can't you just be normal?"


Dornier: *shrieks*

[alt]

I can’t be the only one who leaves these videos with a distinct feeling of “dammit, that would have been so cool!”

[KarlKarpfen]

The actual deadly blow to the Do-31 was the heat of the lift-engines: Dornier found it impossible to keep the plane from severely damaging the runway, making it unable to run more than an few handful of flights before an airfield was as much in need for repairs as if it were bombed.

[lanzortiz]

Everytime mustard say it will revolutionized transport, we all know that project is gonna fail. 😂

[willmorrell]

This aircraft was in the Man in the High Castle.

[Autooo]

“Hey Google, what’s the definition of quality?”

“Mustard.”

[willmartin]

It took five years to design the Dornier 31's technology.




F-35: Hold my beer

[Spirtelol]

3:03 "During the cold war, Norway was under Finnish occupation" ;)

[SpoggiYT]

I am German but I didn’t even know these things exist... Thank you, exceptional quality as always!

[piyushnandurdikar]

The engineer's must have a hard time getting over fact that years of hard work is dumped into bin after the project gets cancelled.
Can feel the disappointment myself being an engineer.

[Tuskin]

First time I saw this was in the 'The Man in the High Castle' TV adaptation, I didn't realize it was based on a real design.

[papasult]

Germany: "I'm four dimensions ahead of you!"

[tonyb]

I worked at Hawker Siddeley’s Future Projects Office during this period. We were working towards the HS141 design, but needed a demonstrator. I was part of a team that worked with Dornier to develop this from the Do131. My work was on adding ejectors to those vertical pods, to reduce noise and increase thrust. They worked quite well, but time ran