Strategic bombers surprisingly became part
of warfare in the midst of World War I, with
one of the first of its kind being one of
the most massive, even by World War II standards.
The Zeppelin-Staaken R.6 was the only Riesenflugzeug,
or "giant aircraft," produced in quantity
during World War I.
It was also one of the first military aircraft
with an enclosed cockpit.
As the largest wooden aircraft to enter production
during the war, it featured an impressive
wingspan of 42.4 meters or 138 feet, almost
as big as World War II's American Boeing B-29
Superfortress...
A New Concept: Strategic Bombing
At the start of World War I in 1914, most
military aviation was used for reconnaissance.
Generals and military officials were mostly
dismissive of utilizing planes or, at the
very least, reticent since they believed that
traditional cavalry could fulfill the role
better.
As the war progressed, however, air reconnaissance
proved far superior.
Even the most stubborn and conservative generals
had to eventually agree that air superiority
should be a priority.
In fact, their expectations and utilization
of aircraft quickly began to outpace the technology
of the time.
The first bombing missions had pilots dropping
bombs on enemy lines by hand.
As the combatants of World War I entered stalemates
on the front lines, the acceptance of "total
war" saw non-combatant participants become
military targets.
The idea of bomber-specific aircraft to reach
them began to take hold.
Rather than directing firepower onto the trenches,
this new idea called for destroying the adversaries'
capacity to wage war.
It also sought to lower morale and reduce
citizen support of the war effort.
For these missions, aircraft would need to
travel longer distances and carry much heavier
bomb payloads.
Strategic bombing was born.
The new strategy required much larger planes
that could hold more volume and fly at altitudes
higher than ever before.
It had just been a decade since the Wright
brothers had flown the first plane.
The Russian Empire was the one to pioneer
in this regard, presenting their first huge
bomber plane, the Sikorsky Ilya Muromets in
1914 after test flying it a year earlier.
Its designer, Igor Sikorsky, would later work
for the United States, developing Pan American's
flying boats and the first viable US helicopter.
Soon all parties in the First World War were
partaking in strategic bombing, taking out
factories, bridges, war materials, and infrastructure.
Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin
The term Zeppelin, linked to inventor Ferdinand
Graf von Zeppelin, often brings to mind the
enormous, rigid, lighter-than-air airships
used by the German Imperial Navy to conduct
nightly bombings against London in the First
World War.
It is often unacknowledged, however, that
Graf von Zeppelin's company also worked on
some of the largest and sophisticated heavier-than-air
planes during the same period.
Perhaps paramount among the company's creations
was the Zeppelin Staaken R.6, the most massive
bomber to attack the British Isles - bigger
even than any subsequent Luftwaffe World War
II aircraft.
Zeppelin began working on large aircraft in
1913 after the British Daily Mail offered
10,000 pounds to whoever built the first plane
to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
Pilot Helmut Hirth convinced Robert Bosche
Werke to provide the funds for constructing
such an aircraft so it could be presented
at the 1915 San Francisco World's Fair.
The start of the war killed those plans before
they materialized.
The aircraft design and idea still attracted
multiple German manufacturers to work on similar
concepts.
After the Russians presented the four-engined
Sikorsky Ilya Muromets, capable of long-range
bombing, the pressure was on for the other
world powers to create equal or superior machines.
Many Riesenflugzeug giant plane designs were
prepared by several manufacturers in Germany,
proposing all sorts of engineering techniques
and configurations.
Most of them were comparable in size to today's
planes and used several engines.
Using multiple engines meant to provide more
extended range and compensate for the low
reliability of engines at the time.
Therefore, most of the proposals included
plans to keep tools onboard to allow for mid-flight
maintenance checks and repairs.
Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin, the head of Luftschiffbau
Zeppelin GmbH, became immediately interested
in developing his own proposal.
Thus far, he had only worked on airships,
so he contacted Robert Bosche Werke after
the Helmut Hirth project fell through.
Together they assembled a team of designers
and engineers to work on the bomber proposal.
They built a new company under the name Versuchsbau
GmbH and constructed a facility at Gotha-Ost.
To keep their construction away from enemy
lines, they soon built a new facility at Staaken,
close to Berlin, to produce their line of
Zeppelin R planes.
The company developed 34 prototype designs,
but only their R.6 variant entered production.
18 aircraft were built, six at Staaken, and
the rest at Albatros and Schütte-Lanz under
a subcontract to Aviatik.
Design
Ferdinand von Zeppelin first conceptualized
his massive aircraft in September of 1914.
He wanted it to be bigger than a competing
model also under development, the Gotha G.1
heavy bomber.
The engineers from Robert Bosch set to work
at first on a rented hangar at the Gotha factory.
As Chief engineer, they set up Alexander Baumann.
The team also included Claudius Dornier, who
in 1915 led the revolutionary construction
of the all-metal Hugo Junkers design.
The majority of Zeppelin-Staaken aircraft
used a variation of the pusher configuration
for the engine set-up, orientation, and the
positioning of the powerplants.
The first of the planes built had its maiden
flight in April of 1915, using three engines.
Two of the engines were pusher style and one
tractor.
The design was a slightly swept-back biplane
with leading-edge, something that was retained
for later models.
When the new company was moved to Staaken,
they were able to use a large number of Zeppelin
sheds already in the area.
When Zeppelin-Staaken R.6 succeeded the previous
model, it was found to be far more functional
than the earlier versions in testing.
It was powered by six engines, which drove
three propellers.
Built primarily with wood and fabric, the
final airframe was massive by standards at
the time and even still in comparison with
modern planes.
The biplane weighed 25,500 pounds when loaded
to its limit, which included a disposable
load of around 3,900 pounds.
It could climb up to nearly 10,000 feet in
35 minutes and fly at a maximum speed of 84
miles per hour.
Its range allowed it to travel only 497 miles,
but it could stay in the air for seven to
ten hours.
To fly, it required a crew team of seven but
could carry a maximum of nine.
Defensive gun positions were found at the
nose, dorsal, and belly.
Some models featured two more guns placed
on top of the upper wings, which could be
manned by the engine mechanics.
One of the less common features for the era
was the enclosed cabin that housed the two
pilots, the navigator, and the radio operator.
On the other hand, the gun positions were
all exposed to the air.
Of its six engines, three or four were placed
between the wings and three or two on the
nose, depending on the model.
The frontal engines drove a single propeller.
All of the engines were fitted with self-starters,
an additionally modern concept for the time.
The mechanic cockpit was placed between the
two engines in each nacelle.
It included a ladder that led to his upper-wing
gun.
The Germans experimented with supercharging
the aircraft by giving the propeller-driving
piston engines an additional power plant,
marking the first known occasion that an airplane
flew under such configuration.
Still, that idea was only revisited with more
seriousness and as less of an experiment during
World War II.
Bombing
Two detachments or Riesenflugzeug Abteilingen
were in charge of operating the massive aircraft.
They first employed them at the Eastern Front
and, in 1917, began sending them to the United
Kingdom.
London received the majority of bombs from
the Zeppelin R.6s, but they also targeted
Paris and smaller French cities at times.
In total, Britain had 60,000 pounds of ordnance
dropped on its territory, the largest amount
dropped in World War I.
One of the greatest complications dealt with
by the crews of the massive machines was the
fact that all missions were conducted at nighttime.
The R-planes had no electronic navigational
equipment, so they had to heavily rely on
radio operator signals used by direction-assistance
stations in territory occupied by the German
military.
It was a less than ideal system that barely
got the crews in and out of their target areas.
There was little precision involved when the
bombs were released.
Furthermore, the large planes lacked power-assisted
controls, which meant that intense manual
efforts were required to pilot the aircraft.
As an almost direct result, 8 out of the 18
production aircraft ended up crashing for
reasons other than enemy attacks.
Only three other crashes could be readily
identified as a result of combat at the time.
One R.6 was shot down by the French on June
1st of 1918, which allowed the Allies to examine
the technology up close for the first time.
In September of the same year, another R.6
was taken down by Lieutenant Frank Broome
from the Royal Air Force's very first night-intruder
defense squadron while piloting a Sopwith
Camel.
This occasion marked the only time that one
of Germany's giant bombers was taken down
by another aircraft.
In August of 1919, the third Zeppelin R.6
was taken down by Polish border troops while
the aircraft was flying a diplomatic mission
between Germany and Ukraine.
A fourth incident presented something of a
mystery.
Crash Site
Almost nothing of the R.6 other than photographs
and development documents was thought to have
survived the end of World War I.
In 1981, however, members of the amateur historical
association "Poelcapelle 1917 Association,"
working from the northeast of Ypres in West
Flanders, Belgium, were notified of an unusual
aircraft wreck.
The destroyed plane was located by local farmer
Daniel Parrein while plowing the land.
After its recovery, the long process of identification
began.
The incomplete wreck was initially believed
to have been a French Georges Guynemer SPAD
S.XIII.
However, this theory was discredited when
repair tools that did not match were found
at the location.
The discovery that the engine was a Mercedes
D.IVa model led to the belief that it was
perhaps a Gotha G aircraft.
However, the recovered parts and materials
painted an inconclusive picture, as they were
common in multiple planes.
The truth was not uncovered until 2007 when
Piet Steen and Johan Vanbeselaere were conducting
identification research following a visit
to a Krakow, Poland, air museum.
There they saw a partial Zeppelin-Staaken
R.6, which helped them finally identify the
wreck discovered in 1981.
With assistance from Polish aviation historians,
they were able to trace it back to a Zeppelin
that crashed in 1918 after fighting against
the Royal Air Force at the Saint-Omer airfield.
The aircraft is believed to have been destroyed
after being hit by British anti-aircraft fire
while attempting to cross the front line.
