The Jona that never took off.
“It is certainly German. Its wings bearing the black crosses reveal it; but it’s a very odd bird. It’s running away at full speed. It’s really extraordinary: it has a cruciform empennage, but it looks like it not only has a forward propeller but also a pushing one behind the stabilizers, at the end of the tail.” Do-335 This is how Pierre Clostermann described his first encounter with the Dornier Do 335 Pfeil, over the Elbe River, in April of 1945. Ten years earlier, Alberto Jona had designed an astonishingly similar heavy fighter, the J.10. The drawing of the J.10 that was filed in 1935. By Roberto Gentilli (translated by L. Pavese) The drawing of the first patent, # 342987, which was filed on June 22, 1935, depicts a large single-seat, monoplane, retractable-gear fighter. The projected aircraft was powered by an air-cooled radial engine, mounted in the conventional position in the nose, and by a fuselage mounted, in-line engine, driving a