Gotha G.II

The Gotha G.II was a heavy bomber of the German Imperial Air Service in the First World War, an entirely new twin-engine biplane designed by Hans Burkhard, who had earlier reworked Oskar Ursinus's G.I for mass production. Burkhard set the fuselage on the lower wing instead of the upper one and gave each of the two large engine nacelles a geared Mercedes D.IV engine driving a pusher propeller. The prototype flew in March 1916, and the wing was lengthened to three bays and the quadricycle undercarriage replaced by a conventional tailskid layout before production began in April 1916. It entered service in August 1916, mainly on the Balkan front, but crankshaft failures in the Mercedes D.IV left few aircraft operational, and from April 1917 none remained in service.