Manufacturer

Doman / Doman-Frasier Helicopters Inc      

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Glidden J. Doman
Doman-Frasier Helicopters Inc
Berlin-Doman Helicopters

Founded in 1945 by Glidden J. Doman at Danbury, New York, to construct rotorcraft with hingeless rotorblades and totally enclosed self-lubricating hub. Produced LZ-1 a, LZ- 2a Pelican, LZ-4, LZ-5 ,and a developed version, DB-1 OB, in 1953. At one time known as Doman-Frasier Helicopters Inc. Doman H-31 of 1952 was license-built by Hiller Aircraft Company Inc. Operations transferred to Puerto Rico, with continued production of DB-10B and name changed in 1967 to Berlin-Doman Helicopters, recognizing interests of Chairman Dr. Don R. Berlin.

Doak Aircraft Co Inc

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Incorporated in 1940 in Los Angeles, California, developing the Model 16 VZ-4Da, with ducted propellers rotating at wingtips, under contract to the U.S. Army Transportation Research and Engineering Command, 1958. This was transferred to NASA for further evaluation. Doak sold out to Douglas Aircraft Company in early 1960s. Doak finally closed its doors early in 1961.

Dmitriev, Victor

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Victor Dmitriev was a teacher, truck driver, and aviation enthusiast in the Soviet Union. He pored over every bit of available information on American sport planes and taught himself how to design aircraft when the Soviet state considered such knowledge secret. Over the course of 24 years he built 30 aircraft, scrounging materials from the trash, now and then buying real aircraft parts through an illegal under-ground network. He modified a Czechoslovakian motorcycle engine for an airplane power plant. His de-sign studio, assembly plant, and hangar were all located in the four room apartment his family shared with two others in Beslickek (formerly Frunze) in Kirghizia, a republic between Kazakhstan and China.
Dmitriev built a whole series of tiny X planes over the years. “I built very many wings,” he said. “Without flaps. With one flap. With two flaps. With three flaps.”
Victor’s first attempt to build an airplane, in 1968, used a version of the Rogallo wing, a triangular kite-like device popular with early hang gliders. It didn’t work, but he was undeterred. In 1970, he got an aircraft off the ground; in 1979, he flew his first circle.
Dmitriev made contact with other closet airmen who helped one another. He said they sometimes sold aircraft parts under the table, and when he couldn’t find parts, he made them. He carved his own propellers with hand tools. He covered the wing and tail surfaces with parachute fabric, then shellacked and painted it for a smooth, drum tight surface. He made lightweight wing struts by shaping pieces of wood, cutting them in half, hollowing them out, and gluing them back together, and then epoxying on a layer of fiberglass cloth.
His work surfaced in the West in 1990 when the magazine Aviation Week & Space Technology published a photo of his machine. In 1991, he sent photographs of the X 14d in flight to the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) in Oshkosh, Wis., which published them in the magazine it sends to its members.

Dixon, Cromwell

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Cromwell Dixon was the son of Annie W. Dixon (1867-5/14/1913) and brother of Lulu Dixon Rogers (died 10/24/1969). His family ran the Princess Theater, 116 S HIgh St., Columbus, Ohio.

On 8/31/1911 he became the youngest licensed airplane pilot in the US and on 9/30/1911 Dixon became the first to fly an airplane across the Rocky Mountains.”

Built the Skycycle airship.

Dittmar, Heini

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Inspired by his gliding brother Edgar, Heini Dittmar made an apprenticeship at the German Research Institute for gliding after leaving school. At the age of 18, he passed his A and B gliding test in 1929. In 1932, at the age of 21, he won the first victory of his class in the Rhön gliding competition with a self-made glider (Condor). Then he became involved as a research pilot.

After success with long-distance gliding, Dittmar became a member of the German gliding expedition to Argentina together with Hanna Reitsch and Wolf Hirth in 1934, where he set new world height records for gliders (February 16, 1934 over 4350 m). In 1934, Dittmar set another long-distance world record with Fafnir II and was awarded the Hindenburg Cup. In 1936, he made the first crossing of the Alps in a glider. Heini Dittmar crowned his career as a glider pilot with victory in the first international Rhön competition in 1937, which was later recognized as the first world championship in gliding. In addition, he was awarded the Golden Mark in Slide No. 1.

With the rocket aircraft Me 163 A-V4 KE + SW, Heini Dittmar reached 1003.67 km / h for the first time in a test flight on October 2, 1941 and was the first person to exceed the 1000 km / h mark in an aircraft. On July 6, 1944, Heini Dittmar reached a speed of 1130 km / h with Me 163 B V18 Komet VA + SP.

During and after World War II, Heini Dittmar worked as an aircraft designer and test pilot, but remained largely apolitical in the spirit of National Socialism. The National Socialists also used the enthusiasm for gliding that arose after the First World War to train young pilots and not least for the air force that was established. Heini Dittmar, who despite all modesty was also very popular abroad, represented the best possible advertisement for gliding through his appearance and success, which was carried out with books about Dittmar’s sporting achievements that were suitable for young people until the war.

A designer of high-performance sailplanes, Heine Dittmar produced a motorized version of his Segelmowein in 1953-1954 as the HD 153 Mowe two-seat light aircraft. Wing and tail detached for road transport. A small number of these aircraft, and of the later HD 156 three-seat aircraft, was built.

He died in 1960 when he crashed on a test flight with his own design HD-153 Motor-Möwe near Essen-Mülheim airfield. The machine, which was originally designed as a glider under the name HD 53 Möwe (later HD 153A-1 or HD 156A-1), had its first flight in 1953, but the type certification lasted until 1957. In the end, only eight or nine HD 153 and seven were built. HD 156 (more luxurious version of HD 153) of the machines equipped with a 71 kW Continental C-90 engine.

In his hometown, Mülheim an der Ruhr, as well as in Augsburg and Schweinfurt, the streets bear his name (Heini-Dittmar-Straße), as well as in Kiel-Holtenau (Dittmarweg).

Dits

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France
Les Etablissements Henri Dits founded in 1922 to build the designs of pioneer Breguet pilot Rene Moineau, starting with a small metal aircraft for tropical service. During First World War produced an aircraft with twin propellers driven by engine mounted transversely in the fuselage.