This is an aircraft that is unlikely to be released in kit form in any medium, which makes it an ideal subject for a scratch build. There is the additional challenge to show it on the turntable at the Zeppelin works on Lake Constance, where the original was built and flown, to make something a little different. The Dornier Rs Ⅱ was Claude Dornier's second design for a long range flying boat that could fly from a base on the German held North Sea coast to Scapa Flow to observe the High Seas Fleet. The first design had been a large biplane that was wrecked in a storm on Lake Constance before it flew. Dornier had chosen a simpler design for his second attempt. Originally this had three engines in the hull driving pusher propellers via drive shafts. While the aircraft was being test flown one of the drive shafts broke and the aircraft had to make an emergency landing, suffering considerable damage as a result. Dornier and his team redesigned the hull, strengthened the boom at the rear and mounted four engines in tandem between the hull and wing. Originally these were uncowled but air flow and over-cooling of the engines caused the designers to add metal cowlings. The revised design flew in April 1917 and was modified again with new tail surfaces later. In August, while carrying out endurance trials over Lake Constance, one of the engines blew up causing a second forced landing. This time the damage was so extensive that the aircraft was broken up for spares and materials, but the basic design lived on in Dornier's long line of successful flying boats.
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