Dornier Seastar

Seastar
General information
Type	Utility amphibian
National origin	Germany
Manufacturer	Dornier Seawings
Designer	Claudius Dornier Jr [de]
Number built	2
History
First flight	17 August 1984

The Dornier Seastar is a turboprop-powered amphibious aircraft built largely of composite materials. Developed by Claudius Dornier Jr [de] of Germany, it first flew in 1984. The design is owned by Claudius Jr's son, Conrado, who founded Dornier Seawings AG (now Dornier Seawings) to continue work on the project after two previous firms, Claudius Dornier Aircraft and Dornier Composite Aircraft, both went into bankruptcy. Development of the aircraft was put on hold without any production Seastars being completed in 1991.

Multiple attempts to put the Seastar into production, often as a joint venture with other aerospace companies, were made throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. However securing the necessary financing to proceed to the manufacturing phase proved challenging. After several false starts, in October 2009, Dornier Seawings announced that it was formally launching manufacturing of the type, although no aircraft were actually built. In November 2018 the company received US$170 million in funding from its Chinese backers to construct a manufacturing facility and one prototype for flight, with production to follow in 2021.^[1]