During 1928, the Rocco was used on commercial flights by the German flag carrier Deutsche Luft Hansa, specifically the Travemünde to Oslo route.

[1] In terms of its general configuration, the Rocco had a monoplane wing that carried both of the seaplane’s engines in combination with a flat-sided and relatively narrow beam hull that was stabilised (when on the water) using a pair of outboard floats.

[3] The hull was flat-sided, which minimised the need (and thus expense) of panel beating the sheet material into the desired shape, which in this application would have typically required a double curvature.

Rohrback claimed that the buoyancy of the hull was such that, if all of the doors and windows were closed, the seaplane would remain afloat even with two adjacent compartments were compromised.

Specifically, as a safeguard against the seaplane turning over in case of damage to one of the floats, the outer few feet of the wing itself were formed into water-tight boxes.

It was separated from the rest of the hull by a water-tight bulkhead and stored apparatus such as anchor ropes, boat hooks, and drogues.

This cockpit was positioned ahead of the wings, thus enabling relatively favourable external visibility for the flight crew in virtually all directions, especially in light of the hull’s narrow beam.

Various materials, including leather, covered the saloon; these were arranged so that they absorbed a considerable amount of the noise produced by the engines.

The saloon featured numerous round portholes that were, akin to the various doors and hatch covers, designed to be water-tight when closed.