Zeppelin-Staaken VGO.I

The VGO.I was a four-bay, equal-span biplane with slightly negative wing stagger. Of mostly conventional configuration it diverged most noticeably from the designs of the day not only by its size, but by its biplane horizontal stabilisers, its two fins, and its tricycle undercarriage. Its two pilots sat in an open cockpit, and the crew also included a mechanic for each of its three engines, The design proved very underpowered, and two more engines were eventually added, one to each nacelle. The two engines in each nacelle were geared together to drive a common propeller. The structure was a mixture of wood and welded steel tube, covered in canvas. Late in its service life, some of the canvas covering was replaced by cellon to help reduce the aircraft's visibility. ==Development==

Around the outbreak of World War I, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin became interested in the potential of a very large aeroplane to overcome the operational limitations of the airships for which he and his company were famous. He was aware of a pre-war project by Hellmuth Hirth and Gustav Klein to build a giant biplane with transatlantic range, and recruited them to work on building an aircraft that could carry a bomb over a range of . and appointed Professor Alexander Baumann to lead the project. From the outset, this was a private venture, but Zeppelin soon secured the interest and support of both the Army and the Navy. Both were changes that had already been incorporated into the VGO.II design. Improved cooling for the still-troublesome HS engines was also provided. In this new form, it flew again on 16 February 1916 and was accepted for naval service by June. ==Operational history==

The VGO.1 received the designation RML.1, for (Imperial Navy landplane) and a unit, Kommando RLM.1, was established to test it in combat on the Eastern front. On 15 August, it attacked the railway terminal at Sloka. During this rebuild, some of the fuselage covering was replaced with cellon, as part of a (invisible aircraft) test, intended to reduce the visibility of large aircraft. A completely new tail was built, mounted higher on the fuselage, and this was also covered in cellon. The newly rebuilt VGO.I flew on 10 March 1917, but suffered an engine failure in the port nacelle after an explosion. As its pilots brought it back to the airfield, they needed to use hard rudder to balance the asymmetrical thrust. Unfortunately, a problem with the rudder pedals jamming at high deflections that had been noted in ground tests had not yet been corrected. As a result, once on the ground and with its rudders jammed, the VGO.I could not be steered, and collided with the side of a hangar. One pilot was killed instantly, and the other died a few hours later. The VGO.I was not rebuilt again. ==Operators==

;Imperial German Navy :Kommando RML.1 ==Specifications (after first rebuild) ==