Zeppelin-Staaken R.VII

The Zeppelin-Staaken R.VII was a six-engined large bomber, a Riesenflugzeug, of Imperial Germany, intended to be less vulnerable than the airships in use at the time. An incremental improvement on the almost identical R.IV, it had two engine pods, each with tandem pusher engines large enough for flight mechanics to carry out some inflight maintenance, driving large pusher propellers through clutches, gearboxes and shafts, and two further engines in the nose driving a single tractor propeller. The sole R.VII, serial R.14/15, flew early in 1917, was accepted by the Imperial German Air Service on 3 July 1917 and was assigned to Rfa 501 on 29 July 1917. It was used on the Western Front and had a short operational life, crashing because of a clutch failure and the incorrect actions of a flight mechanic, with the loss of six crew members.