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Allied forces servicemen inspecting a wrecked "Gotha" bomber, 1917 or 1918. The Gotha G.V was a heavy bomber used by the Luftstreitkräfte (Imperial German Air Service) during World War I. Designed for long-range service and built by Gothaer Waggonfabrik AG, the Gotha G.V was used principally as a night bomber.
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).
Germany employed 125 airships during the war, losing more than half and sustaining a 40% attrition rate of their crews, the highest of any German service branch. [ 3 ] In May 1917 the Germans began using heavy bombers against England using Gotha G.IV and later supplementing these with Riesenflugzeuge ("giant aircraft"), mostly from the Zeppelin ...
Lacking an indigenous aviation industry, the Ottoman Empire primarily relied on Germany for aircraft, although a number of French pre-war aircraft were used in the early part of the war. The Ottoman Empire also operated two Avro 504 light fighter reconnaissance aircraft.
Experience with the earlier G.III showed that the rear gunner could not efficiently operate both the dorsal and ventral positions. Hans Burkhard's solution was the Gotha tunnel, a trough connecting an aperture in the upper decking with a large, triangular cross-section opening extending from the wing's trailing edge rearwards along the bottom of the rear fuselage.
Many air raids attributed to Gotha bombers were, in fact, carried out by Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI or R.XIV bombers, with direct hits on the Royal Hospital Chelsea with the first 1,000kg bomb dropped on England, on 16/17 February 1918. St Pancras railway station was attacked the next night. During the campaign from 18 December 1917 to 20 May 1918 ...
Gotha Aircraft of WWI: A Centennial Perspective on Great War Airplanes. Great War Aviation Centennial Series. Vol. VI. Charleston, South Carolina: Aeronaut Books. ISBN 978-1-935881-14-8. Metzmacher, Andreas (2021). Gotha Aircraft 1913–1954: From the London Bomber to the Flying Wing Jet Fighter. Brimscombe, Stroud: Fonthill. ISBN 978-1-78155 ...
Another modification was the installation of a third 7.92 mm (0.312 in) machine gun to combat British night fighters, which often attacked German bombers from below where they were hard to spot but the bomber's silhouette was easy to see against the night sky. This gun was mounted on a tubular, sliding mounting bolted to the floor of the rear ...