Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.I

The Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.I, redesignated RML.1 in naval service, was a heavy bomber built in Germany in 1915 by Versuchsbau Gotha-Ost, a division of Gothaer Waggonfabrik, which Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin and Robert Bosch financed with Professor Alexander Baumann leading the project. Only one was built, but it was the prototype for the later giant aircraft, the Riesenflugzeuge, of Zeppelin-Staaken and was at the time the largest plane in the world. It was a four-bay, equal-span biplane with one engine in the nose and two in nacelles large enough for a mechanic to reach in flight, and because it proved underpowered a second engine was added to each nacelle. It first flew on 11 April 1915 and was sent to the Eastern Front in 1916 to be tested in combat by the Imperial German Navy. Rebuilt with five Maybach Mb.IVa engines, it crashed into the side of a hangar after an engine failure on 10 March 1917, killing both pilots.