Rohrbach Roland

Ro VIII Roland
Role	Airliner Type of aircraft
National origin	Germany
Manufacturer	Rohrbach
Designer	Adolf Rohrbach
First flight	1926
Primary user	Deutsche Luft Hansa
Number built	18

The Rohrbach Ro VIII Roland was an semi-cantilever monoplane trimotor airliner designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Rohrbach.^[1] It was capable of unrivalled performance in some categories; during its early years, the type held no less than 22 world records.^[2]

The Roland, which performed its maiden flight in 1926, was promptly adopted by the German airline Deutsche Luft Hansa later that same year, using it on its route between Berlin and London via Hanover and Amsterdam.^[3] During 1928, Luft Hansa replaced three of its Rolands with a new variant, the Ro VIIIa, which had a stretched fuselage and were powered by the more powerful BMW V engines; the three withdrawn aircraft were quickly acquired by the Spanish airline, Iberia and used on its inaugural service between Madrid and Barcelona.^[3] In 1929, Rohrbach produced nine examples of a substantially updated Roland for Luft Hansa, which featured a major redesign of the flight deck, and a new wing design.^[3] Referred to as the Roland II, these aircraft continued in service with the airline until 1936 on its Hamburg–Malmö and Berlin–Munich routes.^[3]

Luft Hansa's Rowlands were sold onto numerous other operations, including Deruluft and the Luftwaffe, the latter opting to arm the type and operated it from its clandestine school at Lipetsk to train bomber crews.^[4] During his 1932 election campaign, Adolf Hitler hired a Rohrbach Ro VIII Roland aeroplane from Deutsche Luft Hansa for his two first series of campaign flights in March and July; this aircraft was named Immelmann I after the First World War-era pilot Max Immelmann.