Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI

The Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI was a four-engined German biplane strategic bomber of the First World War and the only Riesenflugzeug, or giant aircraft, design built in any quantity; eighteen were built. Its four direct-drive engines, Maybach Mb.IV or Mercedes D.IVa, sat in tandem push-pull pairs, so it needed none of the complex gearboxes of other R-types, and it was among the earliest closed-cockpit military aircraft. The Army procurement office chose it over the six-engined R.IV for series production in the autumn of 1916, and Schütte-Lanz, Aviatik and Albatros built the production machines. It equipped Rfa 500 and Rfa 501 from June 1917, flying first on the Eastern Front and then from Ghent, where Rfa 501 made eleven raids on Britain between September 1917 and May 1918, dropping 27,190 kilograms of bombs in 30 sorties. Variants include the floatplane Type L, the Type 8301 seaplanes developed from it, and the supercharged test aircraft R.30/16.