Riesenflugzeug

File:Riesenflugzeug Siemens Schuckert VIII 1918.jpg

Siemens-Schuckert R.VIII (1918)

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:

• those with the engines mounted centrally inside the fuselage using gearboxes and driveshafts to transfer the power to propellers mounted between the wings, and
• those with conventional powerplant installations mounted in large nacelles or the nose of the aircraft where engineers would be stationed for each group of engines.

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 with a span of Template:Cvt, the Caproni Ca.4 with a span of Template:Cvt, the one-off Felixstowe Fury flying boat with a span of Template:Cvt and the Handley Page V/1500 with a span of Template:Cvt. 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. The largest built, the Siemens-Schuckert R.VIII of 1918, had a wingspan of Template:Cvt. 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 Template:Cvt wingspan.

The Riesenflugzeuge were operational from 1915 to 1919 and most of them were built as "one-off" aircraft.

List of aircraft

Type	Engines	Span	First flight	Service	Notes	Number built
AEG R.I	4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IV		1916	None	Broke up in flight in 1918	1 completed 7 partially built
DFW R.I	4 × 220 hp Mercedes D.IV		1916	Eastern front	Crashed on 2nd combat flight	1
DFW R.II	4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa		1918	Trainer as unsuitable for combat		2 of 6 ordered
DFW R.III	8 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IV		n/a	None	Incomplete at end of war, cancelled	None
Junkers R.I	4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa		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		1917	None	First example had span	4
Linke-Hofmann R.II	4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa		1919	None	Used largest single propeller ever built, some 6.9 meters in diameter	2
Mannesmann Giant Triplane	10 × unk. engines		n/a	None	Cancelled incomplete	None
Schütte-Lanz R.I	6 × 300 hp Basse und Selve BuS.IVa		n/a	None	Design study only	None
Siemens-Schuckert Forssman R	2 × 110 hp Mercedes D.III & 2 × 220 hp Mercedes D.IVa		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		1915	Eastern front & training		1
Siemens-Schuckert R.II	3 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa		1915	Training	Span increased	1
Siemens-Schuckert R.III	3 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV		1915	Training		1
Siemens-Schuckert R.IV	3 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV		1916	Training	Span increased	1
Siemens-Schuckert R.V	3 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV		1916	Eastern front	Span increased	1
Siemens-Schuckert R.VI	3 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV		1916	Eastern front	Span increased	1
Siemens-Schuckert R.VII	3 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa		1917	Eastern front		1
Siemens-Schuckert R.VIII	6 × 300 hp Basse und Selve BuS.IVa		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		n/a	None	Wrecked unflown, 1915. Flying-boat	1
Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.II	3 × 240 hp Maybach Mb.IV		1916	None	Flying boat	1
Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.III	3 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa		1917	Evaluation	Flying boat	1
Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.IV	4 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa		1918	None	Flying boat	1
Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.I	3 × 240 hp Maybach HS or 5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa		1915	Kaiserliche Marine	Built at Versuchsbau Gotha Ost	1
Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.II	3 × 240 hp Maybach HS		1915	Eastern front & trainer		1
Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.III	6 × 160 hp Mercedes D.III		1916	Eastern front		1
Zeppelin-Staaken R.IV	2 × 160 hp Mercedes D.III & 4 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV		1916	Eastern front & Western front		1
Zeppelin-Staaken R.V	5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa		1916	Western front		1
Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI	4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa		1916	Western front		18
Zeppelin-Staaken R.VII	2 × 160 hp Mercedes D.III & 4 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV		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		1918	None	Unfinished	1 incomplete
Zeppelin-Staaken R.IX	8 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa or 8 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa		1918	None	Unfinished	1 incomplete
Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIV	5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa		1918	Western front		3
Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIVa	5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa	42.2 m (138 ft 5.5in)	?	Post-war	Seized while smuggling	1
Zeppelin-Staaken R.XV	5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa	42.2 m (138 ft 5.5in)	1918	Western front		2
Zeppelin-Staaken R.XVI	2 × 530 hp Benz Bz.VI & 2 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV		1918	Airliner	Two completed, 3rd unfinished	3 (one unfinished)
Zeppelin-Staaken L	4 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa		?	None	Floatplane variant. Wrecked in trials.	1
Zeppelin-Staaken Type 8301	4 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa		?	floatplane airliner	3 built for Kaiserliche Marine	3

External links

• Brief contemporary technical description of the Dornier Rs.III or Rs.IV, with rough diagrams.
• "The Four-engine Giant" Notes on German Bombers in 1918 issue of Flight
• "The Linke-Hofmann Giant Machines", p.2, p.3 & p.4 in 1919 issue of Flight
• "The German D.F.W. Commercial Four-Engined Biplane", p.2, p.3, p.4 & p.5 in 1919 issue of Flight
• Flyingmachines.ru's photo page of many WW I German R-class bombers