(HawkeyeUK Photo)
Built 1944 The Dornier 335 was one of the fastest piston-engined aircraft ever built, with a reported maximum speed of 474mph. To put that in perspective, the official world airspeed record holder at that time was the Me209V1 with a speed of 469.2mph, a record which stood for piston-engined aircraft until 1969. The name Pfeil translates as ‘Arrow’. The push-pull layout allowed for twin-engined power but with the reduced drag of a single-engined type. It first flew in October 1943 but development was slow and only 37 had been built by the end of the war, with none seeing operational service. This was the second of ten pre-production aircraft and was completed in September 1944. It flew as a test aircraft but was captured on 29th April 1945 at Oberpfaffenhofen near Münich. Shipped to the United States aboard HMS Reaper, it was given the Foreign Evaluation identity FE-1013 and the US Navy Bureau No 121447. It was flown for evaluation purposes at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, between 1945 and 1948 before being put in store at NAS Norfolk, Virginia. Transferred to the Smithsonian Institute in 1961, it remained stored at Norfolk until October 1974 when it was moved back to Oberpfaffenhofen for complete restoration by Dornier. This was completed in December 1975 and it was then put on display at the Deutches Museum in Munich, until it was returned to Silver Hill in 1996. The only surviving example, it is seen on display in the Steven F. Udvar Hazy Center as part of the National Air and Space Museum. Washington Dulles International Airport, Chantilly, Virginia. (Wikipedia)
