Dornier Do 335 Pfeil (“Arrow”) was a unique German multirole aircraft—serving as a heavy fighter, night fighter, fast bomber, and reconnaissance plane—developed by Dornier and first flown on October 26, 1943. Designed around a patented 1937 concept by Professor Claudius Dornier, the aircraft featured an innovative push-pull propulsion system with one inline engine driving a traditional tractor propeller in the nose and a second engine inside the mid-fuselage driving a pusher propeller behind a cruciform tail assembly. Powered by two Daimler-Benz DB 603 engines, the all-metal, low-wing monoplane boasted exceptional speed, a tricycle landing gear, and advanced safety features, including an ejection seat and a jettisonable rear propeller. Although intended for mass production across single-seat fighter/bomber (A-series) and heavily armed, reinforced bomber-destroyer/night fighter (B-series) variants, Allied bombings and resource shortages prevented full production—leaving most built units incomplete, except for a handful of pre-production A-0 and A-1 models, two-seat A-12 trainers, and single prototype night fighters like the Do 335 V10 (A-6). Evaluated in late 1944 by Erprobungskommando 335 for operational testing, the Do 335 saw minimal combat service, and while Allied pilots encountered the aircraft in flight on several occasions, no dogfights were recorded; today, only a single original example (Do 335 A-02) survives.
