The “Flying Pencil” was first “blooded” in combat in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War as part of the Luftwaffe’s Condor Legion that fought on behalf of Spain’s Nationalist faction, where it proved ...

This led to the development of aircraft such as the Sikorsky S-42 and Dornier Do X, which influenced the UK’s push for an ...

On 15 September, twenty Do 17s were destroyed and thirteen damaged. Among the casualties was Dornier Do 17Z-2 ... was the last entity to retire the “Flying Pencil,” doing so in September ...

However, there was one deadly bomber belonging to Nazi Germany’s Luftwaffe whose shape earned it the nickname Fliegender Bleistift (“Flying Pencil ... to the Dornier Do 17.