 
This Months Feature The Dornier Do.335
The fastest piston-engine plane of the WW II, the Dornier Do 335 Pfeil ("Arrow"), also unofficially called the Ameisenbär ("anteater"), was a German World War II heavy fighter built by the Dornier company.  Claude Dornier During the First World War Claude Dornier designed a number of flying boats, which typically featured a tandem engine installation. The engines were mounted back-to-back in pairs, with the forward unit driving a tractor airscrew and the aft facing unit a pusher propeller. This engine arrangement was subsequently adopted for the highly successful Dornier Do Wal flying boat of 1922 and the giant Do.X of 1929.  The Do.X The idea of placing the pilot between the two engines in such an arrangement obviously occurred to Dornier. Indeed, on 3rd August 1937 he filed a patent for an aircraft of just such a configuration. It was on the basis of this patent that the Do 335 came to be developed.  The Do.26 There are many advantages to this design, the most important being power from two engines with the frontal area (and thus drag) of a single-engine design, allowing for higher performance. It also keeps the weight of the twin powerplants near, or on, the aircraft centerline, increasing the roll rate compared to a traditional twin. In addition, a single engine failure does not lead to asymmetric thrust, and in normal flight there is no net torque so the plane is easy to handle  The Göttingen Gö 9 The Göttingen Gö 9, a scaled down Do 17, with a pusher prop was built to test the feasibility of using an extended rear drive shaft in the Do.335. The tests were successful.  Prototype Do.335 Fitted with Daimler-Benz DB603A-2 engines delivering 1750 hp at take-off, the first example, Do 335 V1 (CP+UA), flew for the first time on 26 October 1943 After initial handling trials at Oberpfaffenhofen, the Do 335 V1 was ferried to the Rechlin Erprobungstelle for official evaluation. Although some snaking and porpoising was found at high speeds, the Rechlin test pilots were generally enthusiastic. They commented favourably on its general handling behaviour, manoeuvrability and in particular on its acceleration and turning circle. However, they also criticised the very poor rearward vision and weak undercarriage. Top speed was 763 km/h (474 mph) at 6,500 m (21,300 ft) with MW 50 boost, or 686 km/h (426 mph) without boost which made it the fastest piston-engine plane of the war.  The Do 335 V4 was intended to be the prototype for the two-seat Do 435 night and all-weather interceptor, featuring side-by-side seating, cabin pressurisation, 2500 hp Jumo 222 engines and long span wooden outer wing panels. On 23 May 1944, Hitler, ordered maximum priority to be given to Do 335 production. The decision was made, along with the rapid shut-down of many other military aircraft development programs, to cancel the Heinkel He 219 night fighter, and use its production facilities for the Do 335 as well. However, Ernst Heinkel managed to delay, and eventually ignore, its implementation.  Only 32 aircraft of all variants were completed by the end of the war,   cockpit  General characteristics
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