Giant German Bombers

I know about Gothas and Zeppelins and other big German bombers, but I've also heard rumors of another giant. Was there a secret German bomber built or proposed near the end of the war, possibly targeted on New York? Or is this just another Great War fantasy?

You probably are referring to the Poll giant triplane project. It was a huge multi-engined triplane bomber that was reputedly designed to bomb targets as far as New York! It was only partially completed by the end of the war. A section of the fuselage and one of the enormous wheels for Poll triplane are in a museum in UK...can´t remeber where, perhaps at Hendon.

Lately, there has been suggestions that it really was just a mock up for a propaganda project. Sounds very likely, IMO.

There´s info on the bomber in the "German Giants" by Grosz & Haddow and in WW1 Aero magazine as well. A net search using the words: Poll, triplane +Forssmann might also be helpful...

cheers,
AMH

Oh, yeah..makes a lot of sense. A fabric and wood biplane, with a range of 400 miles, traveling at @130mph will definitely pose a serious threat to NYC. Of course, refueling would pose somewhat of a problem.
Why, those Noo Yawkuhs would only have about a week to duck for cover.

[Paul Forster]

You are probably thinking of the Poll giant triplane.Although it could probably have been used as a bomber,it was actually designed to be a transport plane.It had a wingspan of 165 ft.,was 150 ft. long and was designed to be able to fly at 80 mph for 80 hours.There were 10 engines.It was still under construction when the war ended.