Riesenflugzeug

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title: "Riesenflugzeug" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1910s-german-bomber-aircraft"] description: "Imperial German bomber class; largest warplanes of World War I" topic_path: "geography/germany" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riesenflugzeug" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Imperial German bomber class; largest warplanes of World War I ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d3/Riesenflugzeug_Siemens_Schuckert_VIII_1918.jpg" caption="[[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 MurometsThe first successful large aircraft, and the inspiration for the German Grossflugzeug and Riesenflugzeuge bombers with a span of 29.8 m, the Caproni Ca.4 with a span of 29.9 m, the one-off Felixstowe Fury flying boat with a span of 37.5 m and the Handley Page V/1500 with a span of 38.41 m. 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 50.32 m span Junkers Ju 390, was only used as a transport, and the Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor, used for maritime operations had a span of 32.85 m. The largest built, the Siemens-Schuckert R.VIII of 1918, had a wingspan of 48.0 m. 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 wingspan.

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

List of aircraft

::data[format=table] | Type | Engines | Span | First flight | Service | Notes | Number built | |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| | AEG R.I | 4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IV | 36 m | 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 | 1916 | Eastern front | Crashed on 2nd combat flight | 1 | | DFW R.II | 4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 30.06 m | 1918 | Trainer as unsuitable for combat | | 2 of 6 ordered | | DFW R.III | 8 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IV | 53.5 m | n/a | None | Incomplete at end of war, cancelled | None | | Junkers R.I | | 35.0 m | 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 | 1917 | None | First example had 32.02 m span | 4 | | Linke-Hofmann R.II | 4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 42.16 m | 1919 | None | Used largest single propeller ever built, some 6.9 meters in diameter | 2 | | Mannesmann Giant Triplane | 10 × unk. engines | 50.3 m | n/a | None | Cancelled incomplete | None | | Schütte-Lanz R.I | | 44.0 m | n/a | None | Design study only | None | | | 2 × 110 hp Mercedes D.III & 2 × 220 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 24.0 m | 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 | 1915 | Eastern front & training | | 1 | | Siemens-Schuckert R.II | 3 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 38.0 m | 1915 | Training | Span increased | 1 | | Siemens-Schuckert R.III | 3 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV | 34.33 m | 1915 | Training | | 1 | | Siemens-Schuckert R.IV | 3 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV | 37.6 m | 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 | 33.36 m | 1916 | Eastern front | Span increased | 1 | | Siemens-Schuckert R.VII | 3 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 38.44 m | 1917 | Eastern front | | 1 | | Siemens-Schuckert R.VIII | | 48.0 m | 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 | 43.5 m | n/a | None | Wrecked unflown, 1915. Flying-boatdeveloped by Claudius Dornier while working for Zeppelin. | 1 | | Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.II | 3 × 240 hp Maybach Mb.IV | 33.2 m | 1916 | None | Flying boat | 1 | | Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.III | 3 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 37.0 m | 1917 | Evaluation | Flying boat | 1 | | Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.IV | 4 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 37 m | 1918 | None | Flying boat | 1 | | Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.I | 3 × 240 hp Maybach HS or 5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2 mThe essentially same wing structure was used for nearly all 42.2 meter wingspan Zeppelin R-series aircraft. | 1915 | Kaiserliche Marine | Built at Versuchsbau Gotha OstBuilt at Versuchsbau Gotha Ost to Zeppelin design | 1 | | Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.II | 3 × 240 hp Maybach HS | 42.2 m | 1915 | Eastern front & trainer | | 1 | | Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.III | 6 × 160 hp Mercedes D.III | 42.2 m | 1916 | Eastern front | | 1 | | Zeppelin-Staaken R.IV | 2 × 160 hp Mercedes D.III & 4 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV | 42.2 m | 1916 | Eastern front & Western front | | 1 | | Zeppelin-Staaken R.V | 5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2 m | 1916 | Western front | | 1 | | Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI | 4 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa | 42.2 m | 1916 | Western front | | 18 | | Zeppelin-Staaken R.VII | 2 × 160 hp Mercedes D.III & 4 × 220 hp Benz Bz.IV | 42.2 m | 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 | 1918 | None | Unfinished | 1 incomplete | | Zeppelin-Staaken R.IX | 8 × 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa or 8 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 55 m | 1918 | None | Unfinished | 1 incomplete | | Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIV | 5 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2 m | 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 | 42.2 m | 1918 | Airliner | Two completed, 3rd unfinishedOne built during war which did not see any service. One was never completed. One was built as a civilian airliner | 3 (one unfinished) | | Zeppelin-Staaken L | 4 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2 m | ? | None | Floatplane variant. Wrecked in trials.Built for Kaiserliche Marine | 1 | | | 4 × 245 hp Maybach Mb.IVa | 42.2 m | ? | floatplane airliner | 3 built for Kaiserliche Marine | 3 | ::

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

References

1. Haddow, 1962, p.67
2. G. Sollinger, "The Forssman Tri-plane, The Largest Aeroplane Of World War I" [https://ortus.rtu.lv/science/lv/publications/7345/fulltext The Forssmann-Triplane]
3. Haddow, G.W.; Grosz, Peter M. (1962). The German Giants, The Story of the R-planes 1914–1919. London: Putman.
4. Gunston, Bill, 1991. Giants of the Sky: The Largest Aeroplanes of All Time. Sparkford, UK: Patrick Stephens Limited.
5. Haddow, G.W.; Grosz, Peter M. (1962). The German Giants, The Story of the R-planes 1914–1919. London: Putman.
6. Gunston, Bill, 1991. Giants of the Sky: The Largest Aeroplanes of All Time. Sparkford, UK: Patrick Stephens Limited.
7. Haddow, 1962, pp.

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