Finally: The Do X is being replicated
At the time, it was the largest flying ship with a length of 40 metres and a wingspan of 48 metres. Now a dedicated contemporary wants to rebuild the Do X by the 100th anniversary of its maiden flight.
The aeronautical engineer Claude Dornier began his career at Zeppelin in Friedrichshafen and designed many aircraft before founding his own company, which is still well-known today. Not so well known, however, are the design plans of the aircraft in question. However, since there is still some time until July 2029, the budding engineers from the participating universities can still practise a bit to see if they are able to reproduce the ideas of earlier designs and not just hope that there is software that will do the job for them. As is well known, thinking and studying for oneself is not one of the core competences of the young generation, especially not if they have spent half their short lives sitting in school and not working.
What makes it so difficult
The lack of the original plans is not the only obstacle. With the appropriate knowledge of avionics and underlying aerodynamics - one could, if need be, use the principles that Otto Lilienthal established another 40 years earlier and that are still used today for wings - it would simply be the same construction work that good old Claude did back then. But it's not about a pioneer's independent thinking ability, but rather about making something new look like something old. The finished flying ship is not supposed to be able to fly, so the main part of the substructure will not be relevant to the new construction at all, much more is the problem that, of course, no functional propellers driven by combustion engines are needed, but environmentally friendly electric motors are planned. But these are much smaller than the original components and the plastic derived from petroleum was also not used for construction a good 90 years ago, so young people who don't know the dial on the telephone have no chance of even imagining such a thing.
Apart from the question of the materials used, there is also the problem of energy supply. Batteries in this form didn't exist back then, and even if they did, would the ones from smartphones be enough to power an aircraft? Fortunately, the Do X replica is not supposed to fly, otherwise the extension cable would never be enough, and connecting the 12 engines with multiple plugs would also be irresponsible.
Fortunately there is support
Since the suffering students in charge of the reconstruction are budding aircraft builders and not shipbuilders, which is why the very idea of building a flying ship half the size of, say, an Airbus 380 or a Boeing 747 (which celebrates its 50th birthday in 2019) is absurd. In order to achieve this, they are receiving support from the insolvent Northern Irish shipyard Harland and Wolff, which built the three Olympic-class ships (Titanic, Britannic and Olymic) just 17 years before the Do X's first flight.)
The know-how of the last 120 workers and, above all, the knowledge of the parameters relevant to a floating exhibit combine to form a brilliant plan. A replica of the Titanic is being completed on Lake Constance at the same time, and together with the photos of the construction work of the Dornier showcase ship and the research done in 1996 for the filming of the maiden voyage of the Titanic, it will be the task of the later organisation to offer submarine tours to the wrecks. The collision with an iceberg, on the other hand, need only be simulated, as neither ship nor flying vessel will be buoyant.