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[1] with a span of, the Caproni Ca.4 with a span of, the one-off Felixstowe Fury flying boat with a span of and the Handley Page V/1500 with a span of . 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.[2] The largest built, the Siemens-Schuckert R.VIII of 1918, had a wingspan of . 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 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 | class=unsortable | Notes! | Number built |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
AEG R.I | 4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IV | 36m (118feet) | 1916 | None | Broke up in flight in 1918 | 1 completed 7 partially built | |
DFW R.I | 4 × 220 hp Mercedes D.IV | 29.5m (96.8feet) | 1916 | Eastern front | Crashed on 2nd combat flight[3] | 1 | |
DFW R.II | 4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 30.06m (98.62feet) | 1918 | Trainer as unsuitable for combat | 2 of 6 ordered | ||
DFW R.III | 8 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IV | 53.5m (175.5feet) | n/a | None | Incomplete at end of war, cancelled | None | |
Junkers R.I | 35m (115feet) | 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 | 33.2m (108.9feet) | 1917 | None | First example had 32.02m (105.05feet) span[4] | 4 | |
Linke-Hofmann R.II | 4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 42.16m (138.32feet) | 1919 | None | Used largest single propeller ever built, some 6.9 meters in diameter | 2 | |
Mannesmann_Giant_Triplane[5] | 10 × unk. engines | 50.3m (165feet) | n/a | None | Cancelled incomplete | None | |
Schütte-Lanz R.I | 44m (144feet) | n/a | None | Design study only | None | ||
2 × 110 hp Mercedes D.III & 2 × 220 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 24m (79feet) | 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 | 28m (92feet) | 1915 | Eastern front & training | [6] | 1 | |
Siemens-Schuckert R.II | 3 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 38m (125feet) | 1915 | Training | Span increased[7] | 1 | |
Siemens-Schuckert R.III | 3 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV | 34.33m (112.63feet) | 1915 | Training | [8] | 1 | |
Siemens-Schuckert R.IV | 3 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV | 37.6m (123.4feet) | 1916 | Training | Span increased[9] | 1 | |
Siemens-Schuckert R.V | 3 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV | 1916 | Eastern front | Span increased[10] | 1 | ||
Siemens-Schuckert R.VI | 3 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV | 33.36m (109.45feet) | 1916 | Eastern front | Span increased[11] | 1 | |
Siemens-Schuckert R.VII | 3 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 38.44m (126.12feet) | 1917 | Eastern front | [12] | 1 | |
Siemens-Schuckert R.VIII | 48m (157feet) | n/a | None | 2 (one unfinished) | |||
Siemens-Schuckert R.IX | n/a | n/a | None | Design study only | None | ||
Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.I | 3 × 240 hp Maybach Mb.IV | 43.5m (142.7feet) | n/a | None | Wrecked unflown, 1915. Flying-boat[13] | 1 | |
Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.II | 3 × 240 hp Maybach Mb.IV | 33.2m (108.9feet) | 1916 | None | Flying boat | 1 | |
Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.III | 3 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 37m (121feet) | 1917 | Evaluation | Flying boat | 1 | |
Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.IV | 4 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 37m (121feet) | 1918 | None | Flying boat | 1 | |
Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.I | 3 × 240 hp Maybach HS or 5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2m (138.5feet)[14] | 1915 | Kaiserliche Marine | Built at Versuchsbau Gotha Ost[15] | 1 | |
Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.II | 3 × 240 hp Maybach HS | 42.2m (138.5feet) | 1915 | Eastern front & trainer | [16] | 1 | |
Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.III | 6 × 160 hp Mercedes D.III | 42.2m (138.5feet) | 1916 | Eastern front | [17] | 1 | |
Zeppelin-Staaken R.IV | 2 × 160 hp Mercedes D.III & 4 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV | 42.2m (138.5feet) | 1916 | Eastern front & Western front | 1 | ||
Zeppelin-Staaken R.V | 5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2m (138.5feet) | 1916 | Western front | 1 | ||
Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI | 4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 42.2m (138.5feet) | 1916 | Western front | 18 | ||
Zeppelin-Staaken R.VII | 2 × 160 hp Mercedes D.III & 4 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV | 42.2m (138.5feet) | 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 | 55m (180feet) | 1918 | None | Unfinished[18] [19] | 1 incomplete | |
Zeppelin-Staaken R.IX | 8 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa or 8 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 55m (180feet) | 1918 | None | Unfinished[20] [21] | 1 incomplete | |
Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIV | 5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2m (138.5feet) | 1918 | Western front | 3 | ||
Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIVa | 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 | 42.2m (138.5feet) | 1918 | Airliner | Two completed, 3rd unfinished[22] | 3 (one unfinished) | |
Zeppelin-Staaken L | 4 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2m (138.5feet) | ? | None | Floatplane variant. Wrecked in trials.[23] | 1 | |
4 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2m (138.5feet) | ? | floatplane airliner | 3 built for Kaiserliche Marine | 3 |