Dornier Do X

The Dornier Do X was a German flying boat that was the largest, heaviest and most powerful aircraft in the world when it was produced, it was conceived by Dr. Claudius Dornier (1884-1969) and took seven years to finalize designs and another two years to build.
In the design process, a one-to-one wooden mock-up was built, a first in aviation history.
The Flugschiff (flying ship), as it was called, was launched for its first test flights on 12 July 1929. It was financed by the German Transport Ministry and was manufactured in a specially designed plant at Altenrhein, on the Swiss portion of Lake Constance, in order to avoid the Allied Commission, which forbade aircraft to be built in Germany.
On 21 October, the plane took flight carrying 169 people consisting of 150 passengers, 10 crew and 9 stowaways, easily breaking the world record for the number of people aboard an airplane – a record that would not be tested for 15 years. Weighing 48 tons, the plane taxied for 50 seconds before slowly ascending to only 650 feet. As a result of the ship’s sheer size, passengers were asked to crowd together on one side or the other to help the Do X make turns. It flew for 40 minutes at a maximum speed of 105 mph and finally landed on Lake Constance.