Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI

By the autumn of 1916, Staaken was completing its R.V, the R.VI prototype, and R.VII versions of the same design, and Idflieg selected the R.VI for series production over the 6-engined R.IV and other Riesenflugzeug designs, primarily those of Siemens-Schuckertwerke AG. The idea of supercharging an aircraft's propeller-driving piston engines with an extra engine used solely to power a supercharger was not attempted again by Germany until later in World War II, when both the Dornier Do 217P and Henschel Hs 130E experimental bomber designs each revived the idea as the Höhen-Zentrale-Anlage system. The R.30/16 aircraft was later fitted with four examples of one of the first forms of variable-pitch propellers, believed to have been ground-adjustable only. ==Operational service==

The R.VI equipped two Luftstreitkräfte (Imperial German Army Air Service) units, Riesenflugzeug-Abteilung (Rfa) 500 and Rfa 501, with the first delivered June 28, 1917. The units first served on the Eastern Front, based at Alt-Auz and Vilua in Kurland until August 1917. Almost all missions were flown at night with bomb loads, operating between altitude. Missions were of three to five hours' duration. Rfa 501 transferred to Ghent, Belgium, to attack France and Great Britain, arriving September 22, 1917, at Sint-Denijs-Westrem airdrome. Rfa 501 later moved its base to Scheldewindeke airdrome south of group headquarters at Gontrode, while Rfa 500 was based at Castinne, France, with its primary targets French airfields and ports. Rfa 501, with an average of five R.VI's available for missions, conducted 11 raids on Britain between September 28, 1917, and May 20, 1918, dropping of bombs in 30 sorties. Aircraft flew individually to their targets on moonlit nights, requesting directional bearings by radio after takeoff, then using the River Thames as a navigational landmark. Missions on the round trip lasted seven hours. None were lost in combat over Great Britain (compared to 28 Gotha G bombers shot down over England), but two crashed returning to base in the dark. Four R.VI's were shot down in combat (one-third of the operational inventory), with six others destroyed in crashes, of the 13 commissioned during the war. Six of the 18 built survived the war or were completed after the armistice. ==Discovered crash site==

Very little remains of these giant bombers, although nearly a century after the end of World War I amateur historians of the "Poelcapelle 1917 Association vzw" working in Poelkapelle, northeast of Ypres, identified a wreck that was found in 1981 by Daniel Parrein, a local farmer who was plowing his land. For a while it was thought that the wreck was that of French ace Georges Guynemer's SPAD S.XIII; however that was discounted when repair tools were found at the site, and further research pointed that the engine was a Mercedes D.IVa, possibly of a Gotha G bomber. A comparison of recovered parts was inconclusive, since the parts were common to a number of aircraft other than the Gotha G. In 2007 the researchers, Piet Steen with some help of Johan Vanbeselaere, finally made a conclusive identification after visiting one of the few partial specimens (the distinctive engine nacelles) in a Kraków air museum. With the help of the Polish aviation historians, parts were identified as those of Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI R.34/16, which crashed on 21 April 1918 after a mission against the Royal Air Force airfield at Saint-Omer, France. The R.VI was shot down, apparently by anti-aircraft fire of the Second Army, while trying to cross the front line, killing all seven crew members. ==Variants==

;Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI The first true production Zeppelin-Staaken Riesenflugzeug was the R.VI. This giant aircraft was powered either by four Maybach MbIV engines or four Mercedes D.IVa engines. The fuselage was similar to the previous aircraft but the cockpit was extended forwards, enclosed and glazed with a gunners cockpit in the extreme nose. Other improvements included aluminium alloy structure in the triple finned biplane tail unit, which was built with inverse camber to improve the stabilising downforce. Eighteen R.VIs were built serial numbers 'R25' to 'R39' and 'R52' to 'R54' all except 'R30', which was used exclusively as a supercharged engine test-bed, saw service in the Luftstreitkräfte with Rfa 500 and Rfa 501 on the western front stationed in the Ghent area. Air raids on England by R.VIs began on 17 September 1917. Many air raids attributed to Gotha bombers were, carried out by Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI or R.XIV bombers, with hits on the Royal Hospital Chelsea with the first bomb dropped on England, on 16/17 February 1918. St Pancras Station was attacked the next night. During the campaign from 18 December 1917 to 20 May 1918 the R.VIs of Rfa501 made eleven raids dropping of bombs. Eighteen built. ;Zeppelin-Staaken R.VII Differing little from the R.IV, the R.VII had a revised arrangement of struts in the tail unit. The sole R.VII, serial number R 14/15, crashed during its delivery flight to the front line. One built. ;Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIV The R.XIV closely resembled previous Zeppelin-Staaken Riesenflugzeug differing only in engine installation and details. The five Maybach MbIV engines were arranged as push-pull pairs in the nacelles, with the engineer accommodated between the engines, and a tractor engine in the nose. Three R.XIVs were built, serial numbers R 43/16 to R 45/16, of which R 43/16 was shot down by Capt. Archibald Buchanan Yuille of 151 Squadron. ;Zeppelin-Staaken R.XV The R.XV also carried on the five engine layout of the R.XIV but introduced a large central fin in the tail unit. Three R.XVs were built, serial numbers R 46/16 to R 48/16 but there is no evidence that they carried out operational flights. ;Zeppelin-Staaken L This aircraft was essentially an R.VI fitted with large long duralumin floats. Allocated the serial no. 1432 by the Kaiserliche Marine the aircraft was wrecked during trials. One built. ;Zeppelin-Staaken 8301 Zeppelin-Staaken used R.VI wings mated to a new fuselage, which incorporated the large central fin of the R.XV, suspended midway between the mainplanes, all supported by floats similar to the 'Type "L"'. Three were built, serial numbers 8301, 8303 and 8304, of which 8301 was also tested with a land undercarriage. The existence of 8302 has not been confirmed. ==Operators==

• • Luftstreitkräfte – Imperial German Air Service • Riesenflugzeugabteilung 500 (Rfa 500) • Riesenflugzeugabteilung 501 (Rfa 501) • Marine-Fliegerabteilung – Imperial German Naval Air Service • • One (R-39/16) - Ukrainian Air force. Crashed on August 4, 1919. ==Specifications (Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI)==

;Notes ==Notable appearances in media==