About Dornier

Dornier Seaplane Company is an American corporation owned by the family of Conrado Dornier, heir to a three-generation family tradition in the design, development and manufacture of aircraft and of flying boats.

Dornier Seaplane Company's vision is to lead the world’s aeromarine industry. Its mission is to make, sell and support the world’s best seaplanes. The engineering core of the company will remain in Germany. The production, sales and customer support are moving to America to form the nucleus of the world’s premier center of excellence for amphibious aviation, continuing Dornier’s tradition of innovation in aerospace.

The company holds the type certificate, the program rights and assets to the world’s first all composite passenger transport category amphibious aircraft named the “Seastar”. Seastar is the brainchild of Professor Claudius Dornier Jr., eldest son of aviation pioneer Claude Dornier and long term chairman to the group of Dornier companies. His vision was to restart amphibious aviation with a modern design all composite flying boat overcoming the two major shortcomings preventing the existing fleet from expanding beyond its present size: namely corrosion and lack of sea worthiness.

Dornier Seawings continues a century of family tradition in aviation. Seastar is the latest member of the “Wal” family of flying boats ranging from the two-seat “Libelle” to the 169-seat “Do-X." Seastar was conceived by the late Professor Claudius Dornier Jr. It represents the unique know-how and experience accumulated at Dornier in decades of designing, producing and operating flying boats. Prof. Dornier's son Conrado Dornier and his family are the owners of Dornier Seaplane Company and he is the Chairman of the company.

The aircraft incorporates experiential features that would be difficult to replicate without the experience gained in thousands of flying hours and flight missions that Dornier flying boats have completed worldwide since the mid-1910s.

The Dornier Seastar aircraft program has lived through several phases since its beginnings. In 1982, Professor Claudius Dornier retired as long-time chairman of the Dornier group of companies and immediately started with preliminary development work to qualify existing composite technologies for use in commercial aviation, and to create a radical new amphibious aircraft that would overcome the two essential shortcomings marring the operations of the existing fleet: corrosion and leakage of the structure.

As he saw rapid progress in the development, he soon began with the design of the Seastar as an all-composite, 14-seat, multi-role, twin-engine, amphibious flying boat. In 1986, Conrado Dornier took over the program from his late father and managed its development through to the issue of the type certificates by both, the German and the US American aviation authorities in 1990/1991, thus obtaining the first type certificate for an all-composite commercial aircraft.