Zeppelin-Staaken R.XVI

Zeppelin-Staaken R.XVI
Zeppelin-Staaken R.XVI (R.50)
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 Riesenflugzeuge

The Zeppelin-Staaken R.XVI(Av) was a very large bomber (Riesenflugzeug), designed and built in Germany during 1918.

Development

The R.XVI, an incremental improvement to the Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, was one of a series of large bombers called Riesenflugzeuge, intended to be less vulnerable than dirigibles in use at the time. The R.XVI had four engines in a push-pull configuration, mounted in nacelles large enough for some inflight maintenance by flight mechanics, housed in nacelles between the engines.[1]

Three aircraft were ordered to be completed by Automobil & Aviatik A.G., at Leipzig-Heiterblick.[2] Only two R.XVIs were completed and only one of these, (R.49), flew before the Armistice on 11 November 1918. The third R.XVI (R.51) was 3/4 complete at the Armistice but was never completed.[2]

R.50 in flight.

Operational history

Flight testing was carried out by R.49 during the war from September 1918, until a landing accident in October caused significant damage which was unlikely to have been repaired. The second aircraft, (R.50), was completed in 1919 as a civilian airliner, continuing the flight test programme until being flown to Döberitz for storage in November 1919.[2]

Specifications (Zeppelin-Staaken R.XVI(Av))

Data from

General characteristics

Performance

Armament

Notes

  1. ↑ "Zeppelin-Stakken". Retrieved 7 October 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 Haddow, G.W.; PeterM Grosz (1988). The German Giants, The Story of the R-planes 1914-1919 (3rd ed.). London: Putnam. ISBN 0-85177-812-7.

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.
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