Dornier Do 31

The Dornier Do 31 was a West German experimental VTOL transport aircraft built by Dornier in the late 1960s. Conceived as a response to the Bundeswehr’s demand for a short‑take‑off, heavy‑payload aircraft that could operate from unprepared fields, the Do 31 first flew on 13 October 1969. It featured a conventional high‑wing layout with a rear‑mounted T‑tail and was powered by four Bristol Siddeley Pegasus turbofan engines: two large lift engines located in the forward fuselage and two smaller cruise engines mounted on the wing trailing edges. The lift engines provided vertical thrust for hover, while the cruise engines delivered forward propulsion, allowing the aircraft to transition smoothly from hover to conventional flight. With a maximum payload of about 10 tonnes and a range of roughly 1 500 km, the Do 31 demonstrated that a high‑capacity VTOL transport was technically feasible, although the complex lift‑system and high fuel consumption limited its operational prospects. Although the program was cancelled after only two prototypes were built, the Do 31 influenced later VTOL concepts and contributed valuable data on thrust‑vectoring and multi‑engine integration, leaving a lasting legacy in vertical‑flight research.

Dornier

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