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Claude Dornier

Claude Dornier
(May 14, 1884 – December 5, 1969)

Professor Claude Dornier. Since 1992 he began the head of his own aircraft manufacturing firm.

DORNIER Claudius, real name Claude Honore (May 14, 1884, Kempten, Allgäu - December 5, 1969, Zug, Switzerland), aircraft designer, owner of an aircraft company, Fuhrer of the military economy. Born into a mixed family, father is French, mother is German. Graduated from the Higher Technical School in Munich (1907); Doctor of Technical Sciences. February 11, 1910 went to work in the aircraft company "Luttschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH".

In December 1914 he founded his own small design bureau, which was located near Zeemoos. In January 1917, the Dornier bureau received the status of an independent company within the Zeppelin concern. After the end of World War I and Germany's ban on building aircraft, Dornier left for Italy, where, from 1921, he was also engaged in the design of aircraft.

In 1923 he founded his own company Dornier Metallbauten GmbH in Manzell on the basis of the old Zeppelin plant (later transferred to Wilhelmshaven). He also launched the production of aircraft at factories in Altenheim (Switzerland), Pisa (Italy), Kobe (Japan), Papendrecht (Netherlands).

At the Dornier factories, which produced civil aircraft for the Lufthansa and bombers for the Luftwaffe, the Do series aircraft were developed and put into production. In 1940 he joined the NSDAP, head of the aircraft building department in the economic group "Aviation Industry". Until his death, he was a member of the German Academy of Aviation Research. After the war, he successfully passed the process of denazification and continued to engage in aircraft construction; President of the Federal Union of the German Aircraft Industry, although he actually lived permanently in Switzerland and Spain.