The aircraft was designed in answer to a request of the Polish Air Force for a heavy single-engine reconnaissance and bomber airplane.

It achieved the best result in trials of carrying a payload (1,024 kg (2,258 lb) to an altitude of 5,000 m (16,000 ft).

In 1929, the Polish Aviation Department of War Ministry ordered four aircraft with the designation R-VIIIa.

The prototypes and serial production aircraft were used by the Polish Air Force only for a short time.

A six-seat passenger aircraft, the R-IX, was developed in 1929, based on the R-VIII, but it remained a prototype.

The R-VIII floatplanes were used by the Polish Naval Aviation Squadron (MDLot) in Puck from 1933, in a long reconnaissance escadre.

Crew of two, sitting in tandem in an open cockpit, with twin controls (three crewmen could be carried as well, with radio operator).