G.Haddow, P.Grosz The German Giants (Putnam)

Mercur R-plane Project

   The little-known Mercur-Flugzeugbau G.m.b.H. was organized during the war on 15 April 1915 in Berlin. Its main activity consisted of building Albatros training machine under licence and the repair of various two-seater aircraft. Concurrent with this work, Mercur constructed some obscure single-seat and light two-seat fighters of its own design. In the summer of 1918 an R-plane was in the project stage and preparation of the detail drawings was imminent. The R-plane was to have been powered by four 260 h.p. Mercedes D.IVa engines and carry a crew of eight, a bomb load of 2000 kg. and a defensive armament of six machine-guns. Unfortunately, as with all of Mercur’s designs, further details are lacking.