In attempting to survey the growth and progress of the “ Giant ” aeroplane in Germany, it is first of all necessary to review the circumstances and conditions which determined and necessitated the direction of effort in this direction, and secondly, to indicate roughly the accessory circumstances peculiar to the conditions of the Central Empires during the war at the period when giant aircraft first began to appear, and to distinguish if possible the influence of these circumstances where they bear on development in a manner either conflicting or diverse from the conditions appertaining in Entente countries.

Such a preliminary survey is absolutely necessary in order to disabuse the mind of its natural tendency to compare the completed individual German giant aeroplane with its corresponding Entente type; and at the same time to prepare one of the various confusing and unexplained peculiarities which must tend to mislead, if the ruling circumstances are not first made clear.