Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI

Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI
General information
Type	Bomber
Manufacturer	Zeppelin-Staaken[1]
Designer	Alexander Baumann[1]
Primary user	Luftstreitkräfte
Number built	56 (total of all R-series, 18 Type R.VI completed)
History
Manufactured	1917 to 1918
Introduction date	1917
First flight	1916
Variants	Zeppelin-Staaken R.V, Zeppelin-Staaken R.VII, Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIV, Zeppelin-Staaken R.XV, Zeppelin-Staaken R.XVI

The Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI was a four-engined German biplane strategic bomber of World War I, and the only Riesenflugzeug ("giant aircraft") design built in any quantity.^[2]

The R.VI was the most numerous of the R-Bombers built by Germany, and also among the earliest closed-cockpit military aircraft (the first being the Russian Sikorsky Ilya Muromets). The bomber was reputedly the largest wooden aircraft to be produced in any quantity during World War I, with only the Siemens-Schuckert R.VIII prototype bomber of 1916–1919 being larger, and with the Staaken R.VI's wingspan of 42.2 m (138 ft) nearly equaling that of the World War II Boeing B-29 Superfortress, although significantly less than the 48 m (157 ft) span of the Siemens-Schuckert R.VIII.^[1]