Mannesmann (Poll) Giant Triplane

[Jos]

Hello,

What is the truth about finding remains and drawings (in 1919) of a ten engine bomber, designed to bomb New York? In a book written by André ver Elst he mentions that the plans were made by a certain Forssmann (Forstmann?), who worked for the Mannesmann-Werke. Several parts of the so called Mannesmann (Poll) Giant Triplane were found. For instance, a wheel of the landinggear, made of wood. The wheel had a diameter of 2,4 meters.
Between the wars it was an attraction in the Imperial War Museum in London.

Greetings,

Jos

[MikeW]

Jos,

check this out:

[Jos]

Hello Mike,

Thanks for the photo. Do you have more details about this subject?


Greetings,

Jos

[Cliff]

Jos

WW1 Aero a couple issues ago had another 6 ? pics of the fuselage being man-handled onto a rail car for shipping.

Cliff

A quote of a quote of a quote from this archive:

http://www.wwi-models.org/mail-archive/archive.1998/849

">From the Bowers and McDowell book, "Triplanes":

Mannesmann (Poll) Triplane

This giant triplane seems to have been a dying gasp of the
German Air Force. It was meant to carry leaflets across
the Atlantic Ocean to drop on New York City. While the
designer's name seems to be a bit of a mystery, it is believed
that it was the work of Villehad Forssman who had worked
previously for Siemens-Schuckert. The unfinished aircraft
was discovered in a hanger after the Armistance by the
Allied Control Commissions inspection team.

A section of the plane and a wheel 8 feet in diameter where
sent back to England for study. The span of the center wing
was 165 ft (50.3 m); the top and bottom wing were of equal
span but quite a bit smaller. It was to have tandem mounted
engines - eight on the center wing and a pair on the lower
wing. The fuselage was long and slender, mounted between the
center wing directly above the engines on the lower wing.
The fuselage was 150 ft (45.7 m) long.

An eighty-hour flight endurance was planned (editorial
comment: Wow&#33, and provision was made to carry such a load
of fuel. The overall structure was heavy but extremely
weak. No interal bracing cable was installed, and while it
was covered with two layers of three-ply wood which made it
as heavy as a boat, these did little to add strength. In
addition, the ailerons were too small, the center of gravity
way aft, and the elevators would have been ineffective. So,
it is doubtful it would have flown if it had been completed.

That's all they wrote:

Cheers and all,


--
Bill Shatzer"

who is not me.
vL

[Dan_San_Abbott]

VonLemming:
The Germans had a airship that had the range and lifting capacity to fly from occupied Belgium fly across the Atlantic bomb the east coast and return to occupied Belgium. It could have dropped 35800 lbs of bombs on the east coast. It was the Kreigmarine airship L59, a Zeppelin w type airship, flew non-stop from Jamboli, Bulgaria to Khartoum in Sudan and back to Jamboli. The round trip took 95 hours and covered 4200. the L59 landed with 22750 lbs of fuel on board, enough for another 64 hours of flying. When it took off for the non-stop flight to Africa, the L59 had 47800 lbs of fuel on board. The L59 consumed 25050 lbs of fuel for this flight, traveling 4200 miles. Consumption of fuel was 25050: 95 hrs=263.78 lbs/hr. The endurance of the the fuel on board at "Lift Off"was 35800lbs : 263.78=135.7 hours of fuel. Distance flown 4200 miles :95 hrs= 44.21 miles /hr. Therefore the range of the L59 was 135.78 hrs x 44.21 = 6002 miles, with all the problems the L.59 experienced in the African Flight.
The L59 had a design range of 10000 miles at full speed of 64mph carrying 48000 lbs of fuel, 33365 lbs of oil, 20000 lbs of ballast and 30332 lbs of bombs. The German Navy could have bombed New York in December 1917.
Blue skies,
Dan-San

Hadn't the Germans pretty much developed a so-called super super zeppelin of the L-70 class that was designed to be able to bomb New York, also? They constructed some, but ended up using them for other purposes, and it was too late in the war, anyway.

The wheel of the Poll triplane still exists! I saw it a few years ago at The Imperial War Museum site at Duxford, Cambridgeshire. Sadly, this is all that has survived and there is very little information attached to the exhibit.
Regards, Sprocket.

[Tailspin]

A bombing mission on the east coast of the USA would have no impact on the course of the war other than to divert some American air units to defend against future raids and to create a clamor forthe American Air Service to retaliate. The Germans obviously decided that the potential benifit wasn't worth the risk.

[Jos]

Hello,

I read in André ver Elst's book that Peter Grosz and G. Haddow in The German Giants (1962) wrote about the Giant Triplane. Maybe some of the forumites has this book on a shelf and can give some extra info.....

Jos