The Lloyd 40.08 Luftkreuzer (Sky Cruiser) was a three engine

triplane A triplane is a fixed-wing aircraft equipped with three vertically stacked wing planes. Tailplanes and canard foreplanes are not normally included in this count, although they occasionally are. Design principles The triplane arrangement may ...

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped ...

type built during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. The design was proven to be ineffective and development did not proceed past the

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

stage.

Design and development

In August 1915, the

Austro-Hungarian Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops The Austro-Hungarian Aviation Troops or Imperial and Royal Aviation Troops (german: Kaiserliche und Königliche Luftfahrtruppen or , hu, Császári és Királyi Légjárócsapatok) were the air force of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the e ...

(''Luftfahrttruppen'') awarded funding to Lloyd for construction of a new heavy bomber that could carry a bomb-load and have endurance of at least 6 hours. The aircraft was to be powered by one powerful engine in a

pusher configuration In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

housed in a central nacelle and two smaller engines mounted in twin booms on either side. In January 1916, Lloyd received specifications and drawings for a large triplane that was to be known as the ''Luftkreuzer''. Lloyd 40

The unequal

span Span may refer to: Science, technology and engineering * Span (unit), the width of a human hand * Span (engineering), a section between two intermediate supports * Wingspan, the distance between the wingtips of a bird or aircraft * Sorbitan ester ...

triplane had the middle wing mounted to the lower part of the main fuselage and booms, with the upper and lower wings supported by wire braced inter-plane struts. The centre section housed a Austro-Daimler V-12 water-cooled engine, driving a wooden two-bladed pusher propeller. The twin booms were constructed of modified Lloyd C.II fuselages with Austro-Daimler 6 water-cooled in-line engines, and two bladed wooden propellers. Directly below the main section between the middle and lower wings, was a fully enclosed compartment with windows for the bombardier. The most forward section between the middle and upper wings also had windows and enough space for two air gunners with excellent fields of fire in all directions and was also equipped with a spotlight. The pilots position was set in the rear of the centre fuselage close to the pusher propeller and had very poor forward visibility. Defensive armament consisted of two Schwarzlose M7/12 machine guns in the gunners station and one in each boom. Testing of the 40.08 Luftkreuzer began on 8 June 1916 at the airport in Aszód. It was immediately clear that the machine suffered from a

centre of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force may ...

that was too high and too far forward. The aircraft was damaged when it nosed over during ground testing and was redesigned with a third wheel under the nose, similar to the Zeppelin-Staaken R.XIV, to prevent tipping forward. In October 1916

Oberleutnant () is the highest lieutenant officer rank in the German-speaking armed forces of Germany (Bundeswehr), the Austrian Armed Forces, and the Swiss Armed Forces. Austria Germany In the German Army, it dates from the early 19th century. Trans ...

Antal Lany-Lanczendorfer attempted the first flight but the aircraft was unable to leave the ground. Early in November the '' Fliegerarsenal'' (FlArs) considered reducing the bomb load, and in December additional chassis rails were added to the main undercarriage. Development continued slowly but many of the design flaws would never be solved. Lloyd applied for a revision of the airplane in March 1917, but the application was denied and all work halted. The Luftkreuzer was placed in storage and on 17 January 1918 it was ordered to be transported to ''Fliegermaterial-Depot IV'' at

Eger Eger ( , ; ; also known by other alternative names) is the county seat of Heves County, and the second largest city in Northern Hungary (after Miskolc). A city with county rights. Eger is best known for its castle, thermal baths, baroque build ...

, for disposal.

Specifications

References

{{reflist Military aircraft of World War I 1910s Austro-Hungarian bomber aircraft Austria-Hungary in World War I Triplanes Aircraft first flown in 1916 Lloyd aircraft

Design and development

Specifications

See also

References