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A Riesenflugzeug (plural Riesenflugzeuge, German for "giant aircraft"), sometimes colloquially referred to in English as an R-plane, was any member of a class of large World War I German bombers, possessing at least three aircraft engines, although usually four or more engines. These large multi-engine aircraft could fly several hours with larger bomb loads than the smaller Grossflugzeug bombers such as the Gotha G.V.
Some of the earliest Riesenflugzeuge were given G-type designations before being redesignated, but a major distinction was that the requirements for the R-type specified that the engines had to be serviceable in flight. As a result, designs fell into two groups:
The transmission of power from the centrally mounted engines to the remote, most often wing-mounted propellers proved troublesome in practice, and most operational examples of Riesenflugzeug-class aircraft were of the second type, as with the all-direct-drive Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI.
The Idflieg (Inspektion der Fliegertruppen (Inspection of the Air Force), the German Army department responsible for military aviation), assigned the letter R to this type of aircraft, which would then be followed by a period and a Roman numeral type number. Seaplanes were denoted by adding a lowercase "s" after the "R" in the designation.
The Riesenflugzeuge were the largest aircraft of World War I. In comparison, the largest equivalent Allied aircraft were the Sikorsky Ilya Muromets [note 1] with a span of 29.8 m (98 ft), the Caproni Ca.4 with a span of 29.9 m (98 ft), the one-off Felixstowe Fury flying boat with a span of 37.5 m (123 ft) and the Handley Page V/1500 with a span of 38.41 m (126.0 ft). The Riesenflugzeuge that bombed London during the First World War were larger than any of the German bombers in use during the Second World War. [note 2] The largest built, the Siemens-Schuckert R.VIII of 1918, had a wingspan of 48.0 m (157.5 ft). It was not until sixteen years later that an aircraft with a larger wingspan, the Soviet Tupolev Maksim Gorky eight-engined monoplane, was built with a 63.0 m (206.7 ft) wingspan.
The Riesenflugzeuge were operational from 1915 to 1919 and most of them were built as "one-off" aircraft.
Type | Engines | Span | First flight |
Service | Notes | Number built |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AEG R.I | 4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IV | 36 m (118 ft 1 in) | 1916 | None | Broke up in flight in 1918 | 1 completed 7 partially built |
DFW R.I | 4 × 220 hp Mercedes D.IV | 29.5 m (96 ft 9 in) | 1916 | Eastern front | Crashed on 2nd combat flight [1] | 1 |
DFW R.II | 4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 30.06 m (98 ft 7 in) | 1918 | Trainer as unsuitable for combat | 2 of 6 ordered | |
DFW R.III | 8 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IV | 53.5 m (175 ft 6 in) | n/a | None | Incomplete at end of war, cancelled | None |
Junkers R.I | 4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 35.0 m (114 ft 10 in) | n/a | None | 1 incomplete | |
LFG Roland R.I | 4 × 1000 hp Maybach Mb.IV | n/a | n/a | None | Not built | |
Linke-Hofmann R.I | 4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 33.2 m (108 ft 11 in) | 1917 | None | First example had 32.02 m (105 ft 1 in) span [1] | 4 |
Linke-Hofmann R.II | 4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 42.16 m (138 ft 4 in) | 1919 | None | Used largest single propeller ever built, some 6.9 meters in diameter | 2 |
Mannesmann_Giant_Triplane [2] | 10 × unk. engines | 50.3 m (165 ft 0 in) | n/a | None | Cancelled incomplete | None |
Schütte-Lanz R.I | 6 × 300 hp Basse und Selve BuS.IVa | 44.0 m (144 ft 4 in) | n/a | None | Design study only | None |
Siemens-Schuckert Forssman R | 2 × 110 hp
Mercedes D.III & 2 × 220 hp Mercedes D.IVa |
24.0 m (78 ft 9 in) | 1915 | Trainer | After several rebuilds it was accepted by the military in 1916. Scrapped after breaking in two. |
1 |
Siemens-Schuckert R.I | 3 × 150 hp Benz Bz.III | 28.0 m (91 ft 10 in) | 1915 | Eastern front & training | [1] | 1 |
Siemens-Schuckert R.II | 3 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 38.0 m (124 ft 8 in) | 1915 | Training | Span increased [1] | 1 |
Siemens-Schuckert R.III | 3 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV | 34.33 m (112 ft 8 in) | 1915 | Training | [1] | 1 |
Siemens-Schuckert R.IV | 3 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV | 37.6 m (123 ft 4 in) | 1916 | Training | Span increased [1] | 1 |
Siemens-Schuckert R.V | 3 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV | 34.33 m (112 ft 8 in) | 1916 | Eastern front | Span increased [1] | 1 |
Siemens-Schuckert R.VI | 3 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV | 33.36 m (109 ft 5 in) | 1916 | Eastern front | Span increased [1] | 1 |
Siemens-Schuckert R.VII | 3 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 38.44 m (126 ft 1 in) | 1917 | Eastern front | [1] | 1 |
Siemens-Schuckert R.VIII | 6 × 300 hp Basse und Selve BuS.IVa | 48.0 m (157 ft 6 in) | n/a | None | 2 (one unfinished) | |
Siemens-Schuckert R.IX | 8 × 300 hp Basse und Selve BuS.IVa | n/a | n/a | None | Design study only | None |
Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.I | 3 × 240 hp Maybach Mb.IV | 43.5 m (142 ft 9 in) | n/a | None | Wrecked unflown, 1915. Flying-boat [note 3] | 1 |
Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.II | 3 × 240 hp Maybach Mb.IV | 33.2 m (108 ft 11 in) | 1916 | None | Flying boat [note 3] | 1 |
Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.III | 3 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 37.0 m (121 ft 5 in) | 1917 | Evaluation | Flying boat [note 3] | 1 |
Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.IV | 4 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 37 m (121 ft 5 in) | 1918 | None | Flying boat [note 3] | 1 |
Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.I | 3 × 240 hp
Maybach HS or 5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa |
42.2 m (138 ft 5 in) [note 4] | 1915 | Kaiserliche Marine | Built at Versuchsbau Gotha Ost [note 5] | 1 |
Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.II | 3 × 240 hp Maybach HS | 42.2 m (138 ft 5 in) [note 4] | 1915 | Eastern front & trainer | [note 5] [1] | 1 |
Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.III | 6 × 160 hp Mercedes D.III | 42.2 m (138 ft 5 in) [note 4] | 1916 | Eastern front | [note 5] [1] | 1 |
Zeppelin-Staaken R.IV | 2 × 160 hp
Mercedes D.III & 4 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV |
42.2 m (138 ft 5 in) [note 4] | 1916 | Eastern front & Western front | 1 | |
Zeppelin-Staaken R.V | 5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2 m (138 ft 5 in) [note 4] | 1916 | Western front | 1 | |
Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI | 4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 42.2 m (138 ft 5 in) [note 4] | 1916 | Western front | 18 | |
Zeppelin-Staaken R.VII | 2 × 160 hp
Mercedes D.III & 4 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV |
42.2 m (138 ft 5 in) [note 4] | 1917 | None | Wrecked during flight to the front. | 1 |
Zeppelin-Staaken R.VIII | 8 × 260 hp
Mercedes D.IVa or 8 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa |
55 m (180 ft 5 in) | 1918 | None | Unfinished [3] [4] | 1 incomplete |
Zeppelin-Staaken R.IX | 8 × 260 hp
Mercedes D.IVa or 8 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa |
55 m (180 ft 5 in) | 1918 | None | Unfinished [5] [6] | 1 incomplete |
Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIV | 5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2 m (138 ft 5 in) [note 4] | 1918 | Western front | 3 | |
Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIVa | 5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2 m (138 ft 5.5in) [note 4] | ? | Post-war | Seized while smuggling | 1 |
Zeppelin-Staaken R.XV | 5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2 m (138 ft 5.5in) [note 4] | 1918 | Western front | 2 | |
Zeppelin-Staaken R.XVI | 2 × 530 hp
Benz Bz.VI & 2 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV |
42.2 m (138 ft 5 in) [note 4] | 1918 | Airliner | Two completed, 3rd unfinished [note 6] | 3 (one unfinished) |
Zeppelin-Staaken L | 4 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2 m (138 ft 5 in) [note 4] | ? | None | Floatplane variant. Wrecked in trials. [note 7] | 1 |
Zeppelin-Staaken Type 8301 | 4 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2 m (138 ft 5 in) [note 4] | ? | floatplane airliner | 3 built for Kaiserliche Marine | 3 |