Zeppelin-Staaken R.XVI

The Zeppelin-Staaken R.XVI is an incremental improvement to the Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI. This was one of a series of large bombers called Riesenflugzeugen intended to be less vulnerable than dirigibles in use at the time.

Zeppelin-Staaken R.XVI
Role Bomber
National origin Germany
Manufacturer Schütte-Lanz
Designer Graf von Zeppelin
First flight 1918
Primary user Luftstreitkräfte
Unit cost 557,000 marks
Variants Zeppelin-Staaken R.V, Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, Zeppelin-Staaken R.VII, Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIV, Zeppelin-Staaken R.XV, Zeppelin-Staaken Riesenflugzeuge

Contents

Development

The Staaken Bomber had two engine pods with 4 engines in a push-pull configuration. The pods were large enough for some in-flight maintenance. [1] The engines were effectively a V-12, with two V-6 engines mated in a pusher-tractor configuration with a common crankshaft to produce over 550 HP for the pair.[2]

Operational history

3 Staaken R.XIVa (Schül), were scheduled to be built under license by the Schütte-Lanz company. One was only partially completed by January 1919. Each were destroyed to prevent falling into enemy hands. A Staaken R.XIVa built by Staaken was completed on 19 October 1918[3] and was chartered by the post-War Ukrainian government to fly money into the Ukraine, but was seized by the Inter-Allied Control Commission at Aspern, near Vienna, after it returned from Ukraine. It was subsequently turned over to the Italians.

Operators

Specifications (Zeppelin-Staaken R.XVI)

General characteristics

Performance

Armament

Notes

  1. ^ "Zeppelin-Stakken". http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=117639. Retrieved 7 October 2010. 
  2. ^ Bill Gunston. World encyclopaedia of aero engines: all major aircraft power plants, from the Wright brothers to the present day. 
  3. ^ William Melville Lamberton. Reconnaissance & bomber aircraft of the 1914-1918 war. 

References

  • A. K. Rohrbach, “Das 1000-PS Verkehrsflugzeug der Zeppelin-Werke, Staaken,” Zeitschrift für Flugtechnik und Motorluftschiffahrt, vol. 12, no. 1 (15 January 1921);
  • E. Offermann, W. G. Noack, and A. R. Weyl, Riesenflugzeuge, in: Handbuch der Flugzeugkunde (Richard Carl Schmidt & Co., 1927).
  • The German Giants by G.W. Haddow and Peter M. Grosz.

http://aeiou.iicm.tugraz.at/aeiou.film.f/f041a A Zeppelin-Staaken R XIVa airplane lands in Aspern, 1919

Idflieg R- and Rs-class aircraft designations

AEG: R.I

DFW: R.I  • R.II • R.III

Linke-Hofmann: R.I • R.II

Siemens-Schuckert: R.I • R.II • R.III • R.IV • R.V  • R.VI • R.VII • R.VIII • R.IX

Zeppelin-Staaken: R.IV • R.V • R.VI • R.VII • R.XIV • R.XV • R.XVI

Zeppelin-Lindau: Rs.I • Rs.II • Rs.III • Rs.IV
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