Dornier Do 335: The Luftwaffe's Fastest Piston-engine Fighter

by J. Richard Smith

The Dornier Do335 all-weather heavy fighter was the fastest piston-engine aircraft produced by Germany in World War II, capable of producing a maximum speed in excess of 750 km/h. This book contains a great deal of little-known and previously unpublished material and dispels many myths about this aircraft, which has been the subject of frequent erroneous assessments over the years. The authors' detailed text and numerous photos cover the Do335's planned development in various forms as a heavily armed day fighter, a night fighter, reconnaissance machien, destroyer/heavy fighter, and a trainer. This book is the result of many years of research and contains superb-quality photos on this remarkable and innovative aircraft.

175 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2006

Reviews

[Shrike58 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work has been sitting in my collection pretty much since it was published; so long that, in fact, an expanded and revised version has been published by Crecy! That said, there's a somewhat sour tone to this book that transcends some of the usual breathless enthusiasm "Luft '46" machines generate. Maybe it's because there's a German co-writer, but since the designated main production facility for this plane was being built with slave labor, that probably colored the editorial tone. As for the machine itself, its epithet is "so close, but so far," in terms of getting into actual combat service. Besides the teething issues (overheating, weak landing gear and slack construction standards), one also has to wonder whether compressionability would have wound up being an issue; I don't have the impression that anyone ever pushed the Do 335 to its performance limits. Anyway, I enjoyed this work, though anyone out there in the market for a book on this plane will probably want the 2017 second edition.