The quest for the worst combat aircraft in history...

[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by JSLTIGER

I'd say that's probably a fairly good nomination.

Combat aircraft? Yes.

Slow, low payload, expensive to operate, huge target, and oh yeah, basically a flying bomb itself (thank you hydrogen, which + tracers = boom).

Those are Zeppelin problems in general, but the 'Height Climbers' had even worse problems on top of that. While they did achieve the primary design purpose of flying higher than British aircraft and air defences could reach, the men and equipment inside had no adequate protection against the cold and lack of oxygen at such high altitudes, making them rather dangerous to fly. The general navigation and accuracy problems that Zeppelins had were also made much worse thanks to the increased altitude. If that wasn't bad enough, the removed engine made them even slower than preceding classes and the lighter construction made them very fragile and vulnerable to the wind (Which was made even worse because of the altitude, of course).