The Rohrbach Ro VIII Roland
was an airliner produced in Germany during the 1920s. It was
a conventional strut-braced, high-wing monoplane, based loosely
on the Zeppelin-Staaken E-4/20 that Adolf Rohrbach designed in
1920. It had a fully enclosed flight deck and passenger cabin,
and featured fixed, tailskid undercarriage. Power was supplied
by three engines, one in the nose, and two mounted in nacelles
on the wings. Construction was of metal throughout.
In 1926 Deutsche Luft Hansa purchased the prototype Roland, followed
by five production examples over that year and the next. The
production machines were built with open flight decks, although
they were later enclosed, as on the prototype. These were put
to work servicing a route between Berlin and London via Hanover
and Amsterdam. In July 1927 the Roland held the world endurance
record for a payload of 1,000 kg with a flight of 14 hours 23
minutes, and the world distance record for a payload of 2,000
kg of 1,750 km (1,090 mi). At different times, the Roland held
twenty-two world records.
In 1928, Luft Hansa replaced
three of its Rolands with new machines of slightly different
design. Designated Ro VIIIa, these had a fuselage that was stretched
by 30 cm (1 ft) and were powered by the more powerful BMW V engines
in place of the BMW IVs fitted to the prototype and first production
batch. A new Spanish airline, Iberia, purchased the three Rolands
that Luft Hansa retired, and put them into service on its inaugural
service between Madrid and Barcelona. In 1929, Rohrbach produced
nine examples of a substantially updated Roland for Luft Hansa.
These featured a major redesign of the flight deck, and a new
wing design. Dubbed the Roland II, these aircraft continued in
service with the airline until 1936 on its Hamburg–Malmö
and Berlin–Munich routes. Luft Hansa sold at least three
of these aircraft to Deruluft upon retirement. The Luftwaffe
acquired another one, armed it, and operated it at the clandestine
school at Lipetsk to train bomber crews. During his 1932 election
campaign, Adolf Hitler hired a Rohrbach Ro VIII Roland aeroplane
from Deutsche Luft Hansa for his two first series of campaign
flights in March and July. The aeroplane was named Immelmann
I after World War I pilot Max Immelmann. Hitler switched to a
Ju-52 in November 1932. |
