Stomme av lättmetall zeppelinare
The name Zeppelin is usually associated with rigid lighter-than-air craft from the early s through the s, including the famous Graf Zeppelin and ill-fated Hindenburg.
När zeppelinaren kom på besök
During World War I, the name was linked to giant airships employed by the Imperial German Navy to carry out nocturnal bombing missions against civilian targets in London. The Zeppelin Staaken R. After the appearance in of the Russian Sikorsky Ilya Muromets four-engine reconnaissance planes, with their long range and bombing capabilities, development proceeded in earnest, with bombing as the primary purpose.
All had multiple engines and were far larger than conventional twin-engine aircraft of the day. Until that time Zeppelin had built only airships, and had no experience in airplane construction. Since Zeppelin had no facilities for airplane construction, and given that his own works were fully occupied producing airships, in September Zeppelin and Bosche jointly funded a new company to build the giant planes, Versuchsbau GmbH at Gotha-Ost.
A total of 34 would be built during WWI, but just one variant, the R. VI, was put into series production. Of the 18 of those built, only six were actually manufactured at Staaken, the remainder built under license by Aviatik, Schütte-Lanz and Albatros. Constructed mainly of wood and fabric, the Zeppelin Staaken R. VI was enormous by WWI standards, and would still be considered huge today.
När zeppelinaren kom på besök - Sveriges Radio
A biplane with a wingspan of feet 5 inches and a length of 72 feet 6 inches, it weighed 25, pounds fully loaded, including a disposable load of 3, pounds. It had a top speed of 84 mph, took 35 minutes to climb to 9, feet and could stay in the air for seven to 10 hours, though its maximum range was only miles. The R. VI carried a crew of seven to nine, and included nose, dorsal and belly defensive gun positions.
Some aircraft also had two additional gun positions atop the upper wings, manned by the engine mechanics. Unusual for an airplane of its day, the R. VI featured an enclosed cabin for the two pilots, navigator and radio operator, although the gun positions were exposed to the elements. Unlike earlier Zeppelin R-planes, which mounted three or four engines between the wings and two in the nose, geared to drive a single propeller, the R.
VI was simply powered by four—either hp Maybach Mb IV or hp Mercedes D IVa 6-cylinder, inline, water-cooled engines, installed in tandem nacelles between the wings, one as a tractor and one as a pusher. Situated between the two engines in each nacelle was a cockpit for a mechanic, who climbed a ladder to reach his upper-wing gun position. On the Western Front, most R.
VI bombing missions targeted London, though they were sometimes carried out against Paris and other French cities as well.
German Giant: The Zeppelin Staaken R.VI
The 60, pounds of ordnance they dropped on Britain included 2,pound bombs, the largest ever dropped operationally during WWI. One of those bombs struck the Chelsea Hospital. VI crews employed to navigate to and from targets.
While the R-planes carried no electronic navigation equipment, they were equipped with telegraphic radio transceivers. It was a clumsy and backhanded form of radio direction-finding, but it worked well enough to enable the R-plane crews to find their way to London and—usually—return. As one might imagine with very large aircraft that lacked power-assisted controls, piloting the R.
VI was physically demanding. Small wonder, then, that no fewer than eight of the 18 R. VIs are known to have crashed for reasons other than enemy action. Only three were confirmed as combat losses. One was felled over French lines by anti-aircraft fire on the night of June 1, , becoming the first R. VI to be examined by the Allies. VI known to have been downed by an enemy aircraft.