The Rohrbach Ro II was an all-metal, 4-seat

reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...

and

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

flying boat A flying boat is a type of seaplane with a hull, allowing it to land on water. It differs from a floatplane in having a fuselage that is purpose-designed for flotation, while floatplanes rely on fuselage-mounted floats for buoyancy. Though ...

, designed and produced in

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in 1923.

Development

Founded in 1923 by Dr.-Ing. Adolf Rohrbach, the Rohrbach Metall-Flugzeugbau GmbH designed and built many aircraft using light-alloy stressed skin construction methods that were at the cutting edge of aircraft design in the 1920s. His previous experience with light-alloys at the Zeppelin-Staaken factory served Rohrbach well when designing the Rohrbach stressed-skin aircraft. After designing the un-built Ro I twin-engined flying boat, Rohrbach developed the Rohrbach Ro II flying boat as an all-metal shoulder winged monoplane flying boat with two tractor engines mounted in nacelles, above the wings, on struts. Planforms and profiles were kept as simple as possible with rectangular section fuselage frames (with vee planing bottoms), constant chord wings, tailplane and fin with square cut tips and distinctive protruding servo/trim/balance tabs at wing and fin tips. The two-seat open cockpit sat between the engines at the wing leading edge, with an open gunner/bosun's position at the extreme nose. A very unusual feature of several of Rohrbach's flying-boats was the provision of a pair of masts and

sails A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or other membrane materials, that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may b ...

to be rigged in the event of engine failure, allowing the aircraft to be sailed back to a safe

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. At the time of the Ro II's production the

Versailles Treaty The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace of Versailles, exactl ...

forbade the construction of large aircraft in Germany so Rohrbach set up a Danish company, the 'Rohrbach-Metall-Aeroplan Co. A/S', to build the early Rohrbach aircraft. The strict regulation of the aircraft industry was relaxed in 1926, allowing the Rohrbach series to be built at the Rohrbach Metall-Flugzeugbau GmbH factory in Berlin.

Operational history

The first flight of the Ro II took place on 11 November 1923, pilotted by Werner Landmann and the aircraft was used in FAI record attempts for speed/load on 24 October 1924. After trials and record attempts were completed the aircraft was sold to

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Shoji Kaisha Ltd., re-designated Yokosho Experimental Type R 1 and used for trials by the Imperial Japanese Navy.

Operators

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Specifications

References

*http://www.histaviation.com/Rohrbach_Ro_II.html *http://www.letletlet-warplanes.com/2008/06/04/german-flying-boats-part-1-1914-1935/4/ {{Rohrbach aircraft 1920s German military aircraft 1920s German military reconnaissance aircraft Flying boats Rohrbach aircraft Shoulder-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1923 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft