The Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.I (also known as the Dornier Rs.I) was a large three-engined biplane flying boat designed by

Claudius Dornier Claude (Claudius) Honoré Désiré Dornier (born in Kempten (Allgäu), Kempten im Allgäu on 14 May 1884 – 5 December 1969) was a France–Germany relations, German-French airplane designer and founder of Dornier GmbH. His notable designs i ...

and built during 1914–15 on the German side of

Lake Constance Lake Constance (german: Bodensee, ) refers to three Body of water, bodies of water on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps: Upper Lake Constance (''Obersee''), Lower Lake Constance (''Untersee''), and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, ca ...

. It was destroyed in a storm.

Design and development

Claudius Dornier gained the attention of Count

Ferdinand von Zeppelin Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin (german: Ferdinand Adolf Heinrich August Graf von Zeppelin; 8 July 1838 – 8 March 1917) was a German general and later inventor of the Zeppelin rigid airships. His name soon became synonymous with airships a ...

while working on a proposed trans-atlantic

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

during 1913. Later he appointed him as chief designer of the Zeppelin-Werke at

Lindau Lindau (german: Lindau (Bodensee), ''Lindau am Bodensee''; ; Low Alemannic German, Low Alemannic: ''Lindou'') is a major Town#Germany, town and Lindau (island), island on the eastern side of Lake Constance (''Bodensee'' in German) in Bavaria, Ge ...

, responsible for building large patrol flying boats. Dornier's first design to be built was the Rs.I. This was a large aircraft (''

Riesenflugzeug A ''Riesenflugzeug'' (plural ''Riesenflugzeuge'', German for "giant aircraft"), sometimes colloquially referred to in English as an R-plane, was any member of a class of large World War I German bombers, possessing at least three aircraft engines ...

'' in the German classification) constructed largely of high-strength steel for highly stressed parts, and

Duralumin Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, dural(l)ium, or dural) is a trade name for one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. The term is a combination of '' Dürener'' and ''aluminium''. Its use as a tra ...

(aluminium alloy) for low stress parts. The wings were on top of the hull and were braced with four sets per side of Warren strut style interplane structures comprising 'V' struts, which obviated the need for drag inducing wire bracing. The wing structure was formed with built-up steel spars, four in the top wing and three in the lower wing, and duralumin ribs riveted to the spars and braced internally. The fuselage was also made up from formed steel members built up into a framework which was then covered with fabric or

dural Dural is a suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia 36 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district in the local government areas of Hornsby Shire and The Hills Shire. Dural is part of the Hills District. ...

sheeting. The powerplant arrangements were unorthodox, with the two outboard engines housed inside the fuselage, each driving a pusher propeller via shafts and bevel gearboxes, and a central pusher engine in a nacelle between the wings.

History

The Rs.I was completed by October 1915 and rolled out at Seemos for trials. On 23 October, during a taxi test, the port propeller and/or gearbox parted company with the aircraft, causing damage to the gearbox mountings and the upper wing. The opportunity was taken to move the outboard engines into nacelles identical to that of centre engine, and mount them between the wings on an independent structure with catwalks to enable engineers to attend to engines in flight. This gave much better clearance from spray for the propellers, which was probably the cause of the port gearbox/propeller failure. Taxiing trials recommenced, but with little success. On 21 December 1915 a

Foehn wind A Foehn or Föhn (, , ), is a type of dry, relatively warm, downslope wind that occurs in the lee (downwind side) of a mountain range. It is a rain shadow wind that results from the subsequent adiabatic warming of air that has dropped most of ...

blew up during trials. Unable to beach the giant flying boat, attempts were made to ride out the storm on the lake, but the moorings gave and the Rs.I was dashed to pieces on the lakeside rocks. The RsI is noteworthy for the construction materials used as well as its size; it was the largest aeroplane in the world at the time of its launch.

Specifications (Zeppelin-Lindau Rs.I)

Notes

Bibliography

* *Haddow G.W., Grosz, P.M. ''The German Giants''. Putnam, 3rd Ed., 1988 *

External links