Dornier Do-17 – the German reconnaissance and bomber airplane

In 1932 the German company “Dornier” prepared a reconnaissance - bomber aircraft project. Officially it was presented as a high-speed communications and mail plane due to the camouflage of the armament production. In the place, where the bomb chamber was supposed to be installed, a kind of passenger cabin was installed, access to which required good athletic training and flexibility. Due to its very thin fuselage, the aircraft was nicknamed the "flying pencil". When Hitler's party came to power and restrictions on the production of armaments were no longer respected, work on this plane accelerated greatly. The first Do-17s were ready in the winter of 1936/1937, and in 1937 one squadron was sent to Spain as part of the Legion “Condor”. These were reconnaissance planes, and later bombers were also sent. They operated almost with impunity, because the republican fighters were too slow, only the Soviet I-16s, which were received later, slightly reduced the performance of these bombers. In July 1937 the Do-17 became the main sensation at the International Military Aircraft Show in Zurich and attracted the most interest from all the bombers, that participated in the exhibition. In 1938, based on the Spanish experience, a new cockpit was constructed for the plane, from which the firing angles were improved, and the armament was strengthened. In mass production this version is designated Do-17Z. In the September 1939 campaign in Poland, the Germans used about 540 reconnaissance and bomber versions of Dornier Do-17 planes. Due to the high speed and in Poland the Do-17 operated almost without resistance. In 1940 the production of the Do-17Z was replaced by a new aircraft - the Do-217. The Do-17 participated in the French campaign, the invasion in Norway, the Battle of Britain and the Balkan campaign. The model, which can be glued together from the publication, represents the Do-17Z-2 aircraft of the KG-2 group, that participated in the attack on Greece in May 1941.

A large, complex, well designed and richly detailed model for intermediate to advanced modellers. Simplified version without cockpit equipment, with an opaque cockpit canopy, retracted landing gear, simplified engine maquettes and closed bomb chambers will be too difficult for less experienced modelers.