Zeppelin (Staaken) R.VI
| Zeppelin (Staaken) R.VI | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Type: | heavy bomber |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| Commissioning: |
1917 |
| Number of pieces: |
18 + 4 seaplanes |
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The Staaken R.VI was one of the giant aircraft designed by Alexander Baumann during the First World War that was used as a strategic bomber. It was the only practicable one of numerous giant aircraft designs at that time and the basic components of the wings, tail unit and rear fuselage remained almost unchanged from 1915 until the end of the war.
prehistory
The development series began at the test construction in Gotha Ost (VGO) with the three-engine VGOI and led via the VGOII and a few other models to the R.VI. The airframe remained largely unchanged throughout the series up to the R.XVI, apart from the central fin. On the other hand, the number of engines (3–6) and the associated shape of the engine pods and the front part of the fuselage were varied. The drive power has been increased from 720 HP on the VGO.I to 1580 HP on the last models.
- VGOI: three Maybach Mb IVs with 260 hp each, first flight on April 11, 1915
- VGOII: three Maybach Mb IV.i with 260 hp each
- The individual items R.III (VGO.III) and R.IV had six engines, with two engines each of the 160 HP and 240 HP class driving a large common propeller via a gearbox (R.III 6 × Mercedes D III , R.IV 6 × Benz Bz IV ). The torso motors acted on a tension screw, the nacelle motors on pressure screws. There were machine-gun positions in the front of the gondolas. After several flights, R.IV was used as a training machine and survived the end of the war.
- RV was again equipped with three propellers. Five high-altitude 260 HP Maybach engines Mb IVa were installed. Two motors were interconnected in each of the nacelles, the fifth was in the tip of the fuselage. In the back of the motor gondolas were machine gun stands.
- The only R.VII (the last Staaken machine with three propellers) was lost during the transfer flight to the front. Here the original engine arrangement was chosen again. Drive 2 × Mercedes D III in the fuselage plus 4 × Benz Bz IV with pressure screws in the nacelles.
Main version R.VI
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The main version, R.VI, was a double-decker with a glazed driver's cab and four Mercedes engines, each with 260 HP, in tandem in two engine nacelles. Each nacelle had a pull and a push propeller. The propellers of the pusher propellers were designed so that they had their best efficiency in the wake of the forward propellers. If one of the front engines failed, this meant a power loss of more than 25%. On the other hand, the central location made it easier to control the failure of an engine than with a design such as that of the Russian Ilja Muromez . One of the decisive factors for the success of the model may have been that it was the only design of German R airplanes to dispense with vulnerable angular gears, remote drive shafts, etc. and the motors directly propelled the propellers. A total of 18 R.IVs were produced; nine at Zeppelin in Staaken , six at Aviatik and three at Albatros . In some of the aviation machines the driver's cab was glazed up to the tip of the fuselage.
A R.VI (R30 / 16) received a 120-hp Mercedes-D-II engine built into the fuselage, which drove a Brown-Boveri supercharger that supplied pre-compressed air for the four main engines, similar to the so-called HZ- ( Höhenladerzentrale) system in the Henschel Hs 130E during World War II. This machine reached almost 6000 m peak height. An R.VI was probably also the first aircraft to use controllable pitch propellers .
Identifiers
army
- VGOII: R9 / 15
- R.III: R10 / 15
- R.IV: R12 / 15
- RV: R13 / 15
- R.VII: R14 / 15
- R.VI: R25 / 16 to R39 / 16 and R52 to R54.
- R.XIV: R43 / 16 to R45 / 16
- R.XV: R46 / 16 to R48 / 16
- R.XVI: R49 / 16 to R51 / 16
marine
- VGOI: RML 1
- L (?): Standard R.VI on floats
- 8301, 8303, 8304 (aviation type), (8302?)
Seaplanes
The first type (L) was a standard R.VI with a separate driver's cab and two 13 m long all-metal floats. In addition, three very similar float planes were manufactured at Aviatik for the Navy , in which the fuselage was offset a little upwards and stood on a strut mechanism that was connected to the lower wing. The purpose of this change was to move the horizontal stabilizer out of the area of the splash water. The 8301 machine was initially tested as a land version, for which the standard main landing gear and an extra-long nose landing gear were installed. In the case of the aviation machines, the cockpit was again glazed up to the tip of the fuselage, but the pilots sat in an open cockpit.
commitment
While the weaker predecessor models were used on a trial basis together with some Siemens-Schuckert R types on the eastern front, the more mature R.VI models were used in the west. The Staaken R.VI were used together with the Gotha G.IV on missions against London and had a considerable psychological effect, whereby the economic damage was mostly minor. R.VI of the RFA 501 (Giant Aircraft Division) flew eleven sorties against England and dropped 27,190 kg of bombs. Despite their filigree appearance, the giant aircraft proved to be exceptionally robust, one machine even survived the night-time collision with a balloon barrier over southern England and was then able to continue its operation. Allegedly only two giant aircraft fell victim to British fighters, including an R.XIVa. Some others were lost in landing accidents during the night. An aircraft with the service number R27 / 16 landed on the beach without propulsion after the water in the fuel pipes over the English Channel froze. Six R.VI were still operational at the end of the war. Compared to the Zeppelin military airships , the Staaken R.VI giant bombers had a 30% higher speed with a comparable bomb load, but without reaching the endurance of the airships. In return, the cost of construction and maintenance was many times lower and this led to the OHL ceasing to use airships in January 1917 and scrapping the remaining airships or transferring them to the Navy.
The R.VI was the only German aircraft that, in addition to the usual calibers of the P&W bombs of 50, 100 and 300 kg, could also take the heaviest of 1000 kg. One of them hit the Royal Chelsea Hospital. Usually only three or four machines were operational, which carried out night attacks on southern England together with one or at best two dozen Gotha bombers. The " Gothas " could each carry 300 kg bombs, the R planes up to 1000 kg. The probability of hits during these night missions was very low. So it is a mistake to believe that there was something like a strategic bomber offensive as early as the First World War . As with the airship attacks , the military value lay essentially in the binding of strong forces to their defense, which could not be deployed to the front.
Further developments
The R.VI series was followed by at least eight four-engine and five-engine variants.
R.XIV, the first of which had four engines and a fully glazed fuselage tip and was equipped with 350 hp Austro-Daimler engines. The other two R.XIVa were five-engined with Maybach engines. With these machines the pilots sat outside again.
This was followed by three five-engine R.XV with Maybach engines built by Schütte-Lanz and two four-engine R.XVI built by Aviatik. The R.XVI had two 220 hp six-cylinder Benz Bz.IVs in a train arrangement and two V12 Benz Bz.VI with 530 hp in a pressure arrangement. "R50" was the last giant airplane from Staaken.
A total of 35 Staaken R aircraft plus the VGO.I and VGO.II. Since almost all of the machines were ordered in 1916, they still had the “16” in their identification, even if they were only built and delivered in 1917 or 1918 (e.g. BRVI “R39 / 16”).
After the end of the war
After the end of the war, some of the Staaken machines remained in use as transporters or passenger planes , including the five-engine development Staaken R.XV. A photo of a post-war R.VI shows her with the advertising label Fletcher's World for Joe May's film series Die Herrin der Welt (1919) together with the airship LZ 120 . Another machine (presumably a R.XIVa) flew for the Ukrainian government. The last R.XVI "R51" was not completely finished and was broken up on the orders of the Allies. The film recordings in the Federal Archives show five-engine aircraft with the license plates "R69" and "R71" and the four-engine floatplane "8301".
Although Baumann's aircraft were very successful, Zeppelin naturally favored the metal construction familiar from the airships and so Adolf Rohrbach succeeded Baumann's chief designer in Staaken and Claude Dornier in Friedrichshafen. The Dornier Rs IV monoplane and the Zeppelin (Staaken) E4 / 20 pointed the way into a new era. Dornier took over the tandem arrangement of the engines and made them his trademark. With the Handley Page V / 1500, the Staaken giant aircraft remained the largest series-produced biplanes in aviation history.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| crew | 7-10 |
| length | 22.1 m |
| span | 42.2 m |
| height | 6.3 m |
| Wing area | 332 m² |
| Wing extension | 10.62 |
| Wing loading | 35.5 kg / m² at take-off, approx. 26.5 kg / m² at landing (8.8 t) |
| Power load | 10.34 kg / hp |
| payload | ≈ 3,800 kg, of which approx. 2500 kg are operating materials |
| Empty mass | 7,921 kg |
| Takeoff mass | 11,824 kg |
| Top speed | 135 km / h |
| Landing speed | see below |
| Rate of climb | 10 min at 1000 m, 23 min at 2000 m, 43 min at 3000 m, 2:26 h at 4320 m. |
| Summit height | 4300 m |
| Range | 800 km |
| Flight time | 7-10 h |
| Engines | four liquid-cooled six-cylinder in-line engines Mercedes D IVa with 260 hp (191 kW) each or four liquid-cooled six-cylinder in-line engines Maybach Mb.IVa with 245 hp (180 kW) each |
| Armament | 4-7 machine guns, 1000 kg bombs |
Compare For this:
- Disc SF 25 B (45 PS): surface load 32 kg / m², power load 12.13 kg / PS. Stall speed around 60 km / h
- Polikarpow Po-2 (100 PS): Wing loading 26.84 kg / m², power loading 8.72 kg / PS. Landing speed approx. 60 km / h.
Relics
In the Aviation Museum in Krakow there is a motor gondola with two Austro-Daimler engines. The gondola comes from the former aviation collection in Berlin .
See also
literature
- Aviation Archive. Issue 35: Giant Aircraft, pp. 10-13.
- Heinz Nowarra : The planes of Alexander Baumann. Friedberg 1982, ISBN 3-7909-0206-3 .
- Peter Grosz : German Giants: R-planes 1914-18 (Putnam's German aircraft), ISBN 0-85177-812-7
Web links
- Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, with extensive technical data
- Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI and Gotha G.IV
- R.XVI and floatplane 8301 in the film
Individual evidence
- ↑ Giant aircraft from the Zeppelin works in Berlin-Staaken near Spandau - films from the Federal Archives. Retrieved June 17, 2018 .