The Mannesmann Triplane was conceived in 1917 as a long-range transport by Villehad Forssman, who had designed the SSW-Forssman R-plane. Although the Inter-Allied Aeronautical Control Commission believed it to be a long-range bomber able to reach New York, archival records of the Imperial German Navy show that Mannesmann designed the triplane as a transport plane, not a bomber. A 1920 issue of the "Illustrated London News" asserted that Mannesmann's triplane project was intended to drop propaganda leaflets over New York. The fuselage frame had been built at the Poll airfield near Cologne, and the engines, ailerons, tail, and undercarriage were yet to be shipped to the Poll airfield when construction of the aircraft was halted due to the Armistice. The airframe for the Mannesmann triplane was inspected by the IAACC team in 1919, and a section of the fuselage and one of the huge wheels of the triplane are in storage at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, UK.