Dornier factory on Lake Constance

[phylo_roadking]

A recent magazine article on the history and development of the giant Do-X flyingboat of the early 1930s mentioned that the Dornier flyingboat factory on Lake Constance was on the Swiss portion of the lake...

Was the factory ever targeted for bombing during the war?

[NagaSadow]

Dornier had factories on both sides of the lake. First Friedrichshafen-Manzell on the German side and from 1924 to 1945 the Dornier-Werke Altenrhein AG on the Swiss side. AFAIK the factory was never attacked during WW2, as Altenrhein produced only license-built Bü 131 and 133 for the Swiss Air Force.

[Scarlett]

Dornier Altenrhein in 1942/43 also produced a small batch of Me 109 for the Swiss Airforce.

[Auseklis]

Dornier Altenrhein in 1942/43 also produced a small batch of Me 109 for the Swiss Airforce.

Nope...
These aircraft came directly from Messerschmitt/Augsburg, but were in a condition suitable to be delivered to a german unit. That means they had to be reworked to become airworthy for the Swiss airforce. The Swiss were amazed on the bad quality of this factory new aircraft.

[Scarlett]

No, Auseklis, you are not correct.

You are refering to Me 109 G-6, delivered to the Swiss Airforce in 1944.
April 28, 1944 Oberleutnant Johnen of NJG 5 made an emergency landing in Dübendorf with his Me 110 G-4 night-fighter, equipped with the new Lichtenstein radar.
As a compensation for destroying this aircraft before it could be examined by allied spies working in Switzerland Germany offered 12 Me 109 G-6.

Dornier Altenrhein manufactured under license eight Me 109 E-3 carrying the Swiss numbers J-392 to J-399. They were equipped with a Swiss Escher-Wyss EW-V6 propeller and had some other modifications.

[Wehrmann]

Auseklis is right. All Me 109 were built in Germany. At the end of WWII some Me 109 G were build from spare parts in Altenrhein. But the parts came from Germany. From "Die Messerschmitt in der Schweizer Flugwaffe"-Georg Hoch

[Scarlett]

Auseklis is right. All Me 109 were built in Germany. At the end of WWII some Me 109 G were build from spare parts in Altenrhein. But the parts came from Germany. From "Die Messerschmitt in der Schweizer Flugwaffe"-Georg Hoch

Not every part of an aircraft is a spare part. So, it is not possible to manufacture a complete aircraft from spare parts only.
There was a license-agreement between the Swiss Government and Messerschmitt authorizing Doflug Altenrhein to manufacture new aircraft Me 109 E-3 using spare parts procured for the Me 109 E-3 that were delivered earlier. The parts not available as spare parts had to be produced by Doflug.
The Me 109 with Escher-Wyss propeller manufactured by Doflug had a by far better performance between 4,000 m and 10,000 m than the original Me 109 E-3. The aircraft were not in operational service before the end of the war.

The main products of Doflug during the war beside the Bücker trainers were D-3800 Morane –Saulnier MS 406 C-1 and D-3801 Morane-Saulnier MS 506 C-1 fighters, and EFE D-3603 recce and ground support aircraft, all under license. Doflug developed during the war an improved version of the Morane MS 406, the D-3802 MS 540 with Saurer engine. As the engine was very unreliable and due to the upcoming of the jets, the project was stopped.

[phylo_roadking]

Who did they licence them from? from the Germans, ahving taken control of the French factory in 1940, or from Vichy? In either case - did the licence legally lapse in May 1945???

[Scarlett]

Who did they licence them from? from the Germans, ahving taken control of the French factory in 1940, or from Vichy? In either case - did the licence legally lapse in May 1945???

The license-agreement was concluded in 1938 between Morane and the Swiss government. Production ceased in 1945, but not for legal reasons. The agreement was not influenced by WWII. The end of the piston-engined fighter was near.

From 1946 the Swiss aircraft industry produced under license the De Havilland DH 100 Vampire and later the De Havilland DH 112 Venom.

[Auseklis]

No, Auseklis, you are not correct.

Ah... I see... Since I'm focusing on Swiss aircraft used during the war I missed out one these ones comming in service post-war.

But in "The Messerschmitt Bf 109 in Swiss Service" by Philipe Osche these aircraft are described like that also.

[Cantankerous]

Dornier had factories on both sides of the lake. First Friedrichshafen-Manzell on the German side and from 1924 to 1945 the Dornier-Werke Altenrhein AG on the Swiss side. AFAIK the factory was never attacked during WW2, as Altenrhein produced only license-built Bü 131 and 133 for the Swiss Air Force.

The Dornier factory in Friedrichshafen-Manzell was once the headquarters of the Friedrichshafen Flugzeugbau GmbH in World War I, and a few years after the armistice of 1918 the Friedrichshafen company got bought out by Dornier in 1923. Although the Dornier Do 335 was intended to be built at this facility, air raids on Friedrichshafen caused Dornier to set up an assembly line for the Do 335 at Oberpfaffenhofen. It should be noted that the vast majority of Dornier Do 17s and Do 217s were manufactured at facilities outside Friedrichshafen, including Oberpfaffenhofen, Hamburg, Berlin, and Halle (all Do 215s were constructed at Oberpfaffenhofen) so that the main Dornier factory at Friedrichshafen would be free to work on the design and production of flying boats, including the Do 24, Do 26, Do 214, and Do 216 (the latter two which initially began life as passenger aircraft but later were redesignated for military purposes, even though neither aircraft reached the hardware phase).