Dornier Do 215 The Dornier Do 215 was a light bomber , aerial reconnaissance aircraft and later a night fighter , produced by Dornier originally for export , but in the event all except two served in the " Luftwaffe " . Like its predecessor , the Dornier Do 17 , it inherited the title " The Flying Pencil " because of its slim fuselage . The successor of the Do 215 was the Do 217 . Design and development . The Do 17 fast bomber elicited renewed interest from foreign air forces ( after the initial Do 17K series production ) . In July 1937 , Dornier therefore prepared a pre - series Do 17 Z - 0 as a demonstrator for export customers . It was given the civil registration D - AAIV . While this aircraft was essentially identical to the production Do 17Z , the " Reichsluftfahrtministerium " assigned the designation Do 215 to the export version . The V1 prototype retained the 9 - cylinder Bramo 323 " Fafnir " radial engine of the Do 17Z . The second prototype ( Do 215 V2 ) was equipped with Gnome - Rhône 14 - NO radial engines . It safely completed testing , but did not attract export orders because it did not offer a notable performance increase over the Do 17Z . Dornier therefore equipped the V3 prototype with the 1 , 175 PS ( 1 , 159 hp ) Daimler - Benz DB 601 Ba inline engines . much like the 1937 fitment of the earlier DB 600 powerplants to the Do 17L and M subtypes . The V3 , which first flew in the spring of 1939 , showed a noticeable improvement in flight performance compared to the earlier prototypes . Series production of the Do 215 A - 1 began in 1939 . The order , intended for the Swedish Air Force , was stopped in August 1939 due to the political situation . The 18 extant aircraft were embargoed and pressed into " Luftwaffe " service upon the outbreak of World War II . Some modifications were made and the resulting aircraft were redesignated Do 215B . This was the standard production version . According to official figures 105 Do 215s were produced between 1939 and 1941 by Dornier in their factory at Oberpfaffenhofen . Operational history . The " Luftwaffe " initially operated the Do 215 as a bomber and reconnaissance aircraft . Aircraft equipped with the Rb 20 / 30 and Rb 50 / 30 cameras were used for long - range reconnaissance missions , primarily at the Ob . d . L ( " Oberkommando der Luftwaffe " ) . Later aircraft operated as night fighters . The last of the Do 215s were retired in late 1944 . Variants . Of the versions of the Do 215 that existed , the A - 1 bomber with DB 601 engines , and the B - 0 and B - 1 export machines both re - equipped with FuG 10 navigation device for the " Luftwaffe " . The Do 215 B - 5 was the first night fighter to be equipped with the FuG 202 Lichtenstein B / C navigation device . These aircraft saw action from January 1941 to May 1944 with I . and IV . / NJG 1 and II . / NJG 2 . Survivors . Up until recently , none of the Dornier twin - engined bomber variants were thought to have survived . In September 2007 , a Dornier Do 215 B was found largely intact in the shallow waters of the Waddenzee , the Netherlands . This aircraft was flown by a Luftwaffe fighter ace Helmut Woltersdorf . On the night of 6 / 7 July 1941 Woltersdorf shot down a Vickers Wellington but his Dornier was damaged by return fire and crash landed off the Dutch Coast . The area where the Dornier came down was named as a seal sanctuary and thus it escaped the attentions of scrap merchants and souvenir hunters . At low tide the aircraft becomes visible . The Aircraft Recovery Group from the Airwar Museum at Fort Veldhuis in Heemskerk received permission to partially recover the Do 215 . The only missing part of the aircraft is the tail section which lies to the rear of the main wreckage . The Daimler - Benz DB 601 engines were recovered along with the starboard portion of the cockpit .