This readme has been kindly compiled and put together by a friend, FSAviator, who has sifted through a number of different sources that are often contradictory or inexact, and sometimes controversial.
Some sources have classified the Grossflugzeug as a total technological failure due to its shortcomings, and others regard it as a technological wonder, ahead of its time.
This article is an attempt to put the aircraft into its historical context, a time of war and suffering, where there was no previous large-aircraft technology to rely on, and any new development was a risky and often dangerous experiment.
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In order to create the FS2002 flight dynamics for this aircraft I first had to research their technical evolution in some detail. All too often FS2002 lacks a context for flight operations so during that process I also made notes about their general development, usage and deployment. Of course this brief history is only as accurate as the dozen or so German and British sources I consulted during my flight model research. None of the historians upon whose research this account ultimately relies was present at the time and opinions concerning certain 'facts' are still disputed.
The Manufacturer
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Gothaer Waggonfabrik, as the name implies, were a pre war manufacturer of railway rolling stock. In the pioneer days of aviation they founded and ran the Duke Karl Edward flying school and eventually aquired a license to build popular light aircraft, particularly of the Etrich Taube monoplane variety for general sale, and from 1914 for military use. The quality of construction was noted to be high.
The first of the "G" series: Gotha G.1 Grosskampfflugzeug.
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Oskar ('Papa') Ursinus was well known in aviation circles as the publisher of the popular flying magazine Flugsport. Before the war he proposed a novel design for a very large seaplane, but the German government was particularly interested in a land based combat version, and so, that would be built first.
Once war broke out Ursinus worked with Major Freidel, commanding Fliegerersatzabteilung 3 at Darmstadt to turn his idea into a working blueprint. As soon as the practical details were complete, the German government awarded the contract for production of a prototype to Gothaer Waggonfabrik and this was very quickly followed by an order for the G-I production series aircraft with wheeled undercarriage. The G stood for Grossflugzeug, not Gotha. Although the original seaplane design was actually built later, it is convenient to start with the first design.
A single example of the Ursinus Wasser Doppledekker (UWD) was accepted by the German Navy in February 1916. To improve the asymmetric capability, Ursinus put the engines as close together as possible. However, to manoeuvre a floatplane on the water at low speed where water rudders are ineffective you need asymmetric thrust. Apart from the prototype landplane, all the Ursinus Gothas had counter rotating airscrews and they may have been the first multi-engined aircraft which could fly on one engine at light weights. It does not seem to have had much influence on later Gotha seaplane designs, which gave higher priority to maneuvering on water.
That apart, there does not seem to have been much wrong with the UWD - which, given that the design dates from early 1914, was pretty good going. Ursinus had designed the UWD around Benz Bz.III engines and whilst they may have powered the original landplane prototype, all the production aircraft including the UWD had Mercedes D.III engines, which were very reliable by the standards of the day.
The Ursinus designs including the UWD had three cockpits. The front cockpit was occupied by an air gunner, who also threw any bombs that might be carried, though this would be rare. The aircraft captain, (who in the Navy was a trained navigator), occupied the central cockpit. The helmsman sat at the rear with an exceptionally poor view ahead and down. The navigator had a very poor view downwards.
A 7.9mm Parabellum machine gun could be fitted to the front cockpit to attack shipping. Most historians believe that the single Gotha UWD served only as a torpedo trials development aircraft and then as a torpedo trainer. I doubt it carried three crew when carrying a torpedo, though the floatplane had no armour. An alternative version of the career of the sole UWD has it bombing Dover after taking off from Zeebrugge. It is possible this is true for it seems to have been destroyed during landing at Zeebrugge.
The production series G-I landplane was not a bomber. Like all early Grossflugzeug, it was a Kampfflugzeug or flying battleship, complete with a 200Kg chrome-nickel armour plate bathtub containing the three cockpits and protecting the crew from ground fire. Its primary role was armed reconnaissance, at a time when few aircraft were armed. Its secondary role was escort or navigation leadership of smaller aircraft, with bombing as a tertiary role. If CAP was required they flew CAP, for in 1915 they were the most effective fighters on the Eastern Front. The captain still occupied the central cockpit, but was now usually a cavalry officer trained in reconnaissance and with little training in aerial navigation.
When carried the bombs hung on lengths of string suspended from the forward gun ring. When ordered, the air gunner pulled the bombs inboard for fusing and then threw them one at a time at whatever the target happened to be. Although the G-I had enough engine power to lift 200Kg of bombs, like later Gothas the problem was not weight, but disposition of the load. There was no bomb bay. The aircraft was top heavy by design and when the bombs were hung around the front cockpit it became nose heavy as well. It was prone to nose over on take off with bombs and on landing without. The actual bombload carried would have been limited by CG considerations rather than weight.
All Kampfflugzeug were designed to attack multiple targets per sortie. The idea of dropping a stick of bombs on a single target to ensure a hit with at least one bomb came later. Gothas roamed behind enemy lines for an hour or more conducting reconnaissance, attacking both planned targets and targets of opportunity usually with just one bomb per target.
Maximum speed at sea level was about 130 Kph. Service ceiling about 2700 metres. Study the aircraft.cfg of this Gotha you download for Fs2002 to understand the fuel and payload trade off as well as the engine specification.
Eighteen Gotha G-Is were delivered between August and December 1915. The last was withdrawn from combat in October 1916. They served on both the Western and Eastern fronts. In the West they were mostly based in Belgium and flew missions against British forces in Belgium and Northern France alongside Kampfflugzeug from other manufacturers. Major Freidel was posted to be Air Staff Officer to the 9th German Army on the Eastern Front, the Gotha G-Is in the East coming under his command. If you think the Eastern Front was a quiet backwater in 1915 think again. The Imperial Russian Army lost 2.45 million men in action that year. Austro Hungarian losses were 1.2 million and German losses on the Eastern front 262,000. Hardly a backwater.
Allied intelligence services however made the mistake of believing that the G in the designation stood for Gotha, and all Grossflugzeug were referred to as Gothas in Britain and France, giving the impression that Grossflugzeug made by Gotha were much more widely employed than they were.
Until very late in the combat career of the G-I there were no allied single seat fighters. Kampfflugzeug might be engaged by allied two seaters from time to time, but they were generally thought of as flying battleships and given a wide berth. The threat to the Kampfflugzeug was the growing anti aircraft artillery and as that improved the Grossflugzeug had to change role and fly higher.
When German troops entered Belgium in 1914, the British Army responded immediately. With only 6 divisions, Britain's 'contemptible little army' was no match for the 82 German divisions, most of which were advancing through Belgium. After a period of 'delaying actions' (rapid defeats), the British managed to dig in just short of Dunkerque. As the German advance bogged down along its entire length and with winter approaching, a more or less formal arrangement provided that the British Army would hold the line from the Sea to the Somme, whilst the French would man the rest of the Western Front. Northern France was garrisoned by the British.
The German high command expected to take Dunkerque within a few days of hostilities commencing, despite the intervention of a British Expeditionary Force, and planned accordingly. The German Army Air Service was to aquire Grossflugzeug, which would specialise in bombing, to operate from airfields around Dunkerque, and when possible Calais, to attack England, especially all naval bases in the area. The bomber Grossflugzeug were always intended to attack the British.
However, on this occasion the German Army failed to reach Dunkerque. In consequence an organisation with the code name Ostend Carrier Pigeon Flight was established, to receive and operate the first bomber Grossflugzeug reporting directly to the High Command (OHL). German Army bomber units were officially designated Kagohls (Kampfgeshwader der OHL). The third formed would later be better known by its unofficial title 'Das England Geschwader' and like the Richtofen Geschwader it would be an overstrength formation with elite crews. There was just one problem: The early Grossflugzeug including the Gotha G-I could not reach England from Ostend.
So in the mean time, the focus of attention for the Kagohls switched to the French ports, through which British supplies and re-enforcements were streaming. These were within range of simple, fast, maneuverable, single engined aircraft and did not require the use of Grossflugzeug, which were unexpectedly available for use elsewhere.
At first anti aircraft guns hardly existed. Most Battleships had two, the same number as London. The Russians had hardly any. Some fighters existed, but the Russians had none at all. So long as the Gotha G-Is flew above the range of ordinary rifles (above about 1000 metres), they could roam along the Russian, Belgian or French railways dropping their bombs on marshalling yards, stations or trains with impunity; and they did.
The German High Command knew that this satisfactory state of affairs would not last.
Responsibility for the air defence of all allied ports on both sides of the Straights of Dover in all three countries was allocated to the Royal Navy. The airfields opposite those of the northern Kagohls, even in France were manned by the Royal Naval Air Service and not the Royal Flying Corps of the British Army, the French or the Belgians. The Royal Navy was the 'Senior Service' and obtained the best of everything, including aircraft. This gave the German Army Air Service an extra reason to make use of the Grossflugzeug elsewhere, once single seat fighters began to appear, for despite the 'flying battleship' hyperbole, the early Grossflugzeug were in reality slow, hard to manoeuvre and vulnerable when confronted by true fighters.
