Roden Zeppelin Staaken R.VI Aviatik Built R52/17 1/72 Scale ROD 050

The war career of the R.52/17 was all too short. This machine was sent to the Front and into the inventory of Rfa 500 at the end of June 1918. Only a month later, on the night of 11th-12th August 1918, during a raid over France, this aircraft caught fire in the air and fell down near Villers la Tour, burying in its wreckage Hptm. Erich Schilling and his entire crew. The next machine, R.53/17, was delivered to Rfa 500 soon afterwards that August, but it suffered aseries of technical problems and could not be accepted for operational use. This aircraft was passed on to the strategic bombing training unit in Cologne, where it met the Armistice. In compliance with the Articles of the Versailles agreement it was destroyed in 1919. The last of the R.VI’s, R.54/17, had not even reached a finished statewhen the Armistice agreement was signed. This machine was also broken up in 1919.

It goes without saying that the Zeppelin Staaken R.VI was one of the most majestic engineering achievements of World War I. Numerous inventions and technical innovations, which were incorporated during its production, laid the foundations for all future development of strategic bombing in world aviation.