OTTO DAUS 18??-1976

Daus Taube Peter Grosz has identified this rare aeroplane. Collection of Craig Westerman, 2-6-06

 

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES via email from Kees Kort, 1-16-07 Hallo,      I recognized the rare picture above, identified by the late Peter M. Grosz, as a Daus Taube.      Otto Daus received his pilot license, #800, in June, 1914 and was drafted almost immediately thereafter in the Fliegertruppe. After 1930, Daus became a designer in the Tempo automobile factory. He died on 6th December, 1976 in Hamburg.      Engineer Otto Daus designed and built two machines: Eindecker (German for monoplane) built in 1910. It had wings similar to the Taube and was powered by a 7 cylinder rotary engine. Between the landing gear / wheels was a landing skid. In 1910, some short flights were made with this machine. Renneindecker (German for monoplane racer). Produced in 1914. Powered by a 70 hp Schwade rotary engine. In the form of a Taube, with two pillars (in German : Spanntürmen). The propeller was mounted at the back of the rotary engine (quite old fashioned for 1914 !). Daus got his pilot license flying this plane.      Considering this information I come to the conclusion that the Eindecker (from 1910) is the one on the picture, because of the skid between the wheels and the normal front mounting of the propeller on the rotary engine.      This information is gleaned from Bruno Lange. Typenhandbuch der deutschen Luftfahrttechnik, ISBN 3763752846. By the way no pictures are given of the Daus Taube / Eindecker in this book. Regards Kees Kort [aka Varese2002 on Aerodrome] Apeldoorn, Netherlands

 

ONLINE RESOURCES      If you search for "Otto Daus", using the Google search engine, (1-18-07), you will not find about 39 links, most of them are in German and refer to his activities in the automobile field.

 

Otto Daus died in 1976. Editor's Note: If you have any more information on this pioneer aviator, please contact me. E-mail to Ralph Cooper   Back