1917 R.II, Bomber, R.55/17

Linke-Hofmann's first attempt at building a long distance bomber was not successful. For their second attempt, they took the design of a generic biplane and scaled it up by a factor of three. The photo looks like a somewhat normal biplane, until you study the dimensions.

Upper wingspan, 138 ft 4 in

Lower wingspan, 111 ft 5 in

Length, 66 ft 8 in

Powered by four 260 hp Mercedes D.IVa 6-cylinder water-cooled in-line engines. The four engines could be coupled to the propeller shaft separately. It could fly on only two engines. Driving a 22 ft 8 in propeller at 545 rpm.

According to the book "The German Giants: The story of the R-planes 1914-1919" by G. W. Haddow and Peter M. Grosz,

"No details are known concerning the end of R.55, other than a report that it crashed before completing its test program."