Chapter 526： Giant glider (1/2)

The DFS230 glider is a small glider. Its size is similar to that of a fighter jet. It can carry more than a dozen fighters and has a payload of about 1.2 tons. Therefore, a large number of these gliders must be used in one operation.

And the current glider, in terms of size, has to be a bit bigger, just like a huge hamburger, with a fat belly, and like a pregnant doe.

The Me321 ”Giant” glider, seen from the nose, is similar to the super helicopter of later generations.

It is centered on a box-shaped cargo hold 11 meters long, 3.15 meters wide, and 3.32 meters high. The front nose is a shell-shaped cargo door that can be opened to both sides, which can be directly loaded into large-volume cargo. This is very similar to the large transport aircraft of later generations.

In order to facilitate the entry and exit of vehicles, the cargo compartment floor is very low from the ground and a special ramp is designed. At the same time, the cargo hold floor is reinforced with a strong frame, which can carry 22 tons of cargo.

The cargo hold floor area is about 40 square meters, and the entire cargo hold has a volume of 108 cubic meters. After adding an auxiliary partition in the middle section, it can transport 200 fully armed soldiers.

It can be said that the entire aircraft is deployed with this cargo warehouse as the center. Above the cargo cabin is a metal wing girder with steel pipe welded N-shaped structure, and wooden ribs maintain its airfoil.

Compared with those gliders for pediatrics, this glider is already bigger than the largest aircraft in many countries!

It can be said that this glider was specially prepared for landing in the UK, and it is only the first experiment.

In the war of the invasion of Belgium, this glider was not used because it was not suitable. Only a small glider could accurately land on the top of the fortress and beside the bridge. This heavy glider was not suitable and unnecessary.

When opening the warehouse, as long as you see the majestic tank inside, you know that it is really unnecessary.

This glider has a load of 22 tons, and of course it was developed to transport main battle tanks!

Paratroopers can only carry light weapons and equipment. On the battlefield, they are quite passive. If they had a main battle tank, it would be different!

Due to the limited load capacity, the glider did not carry the forty-ton Panther 3 tank, but the 20-ton Panther 2 tank. These tanks still have some inventory, and they are all equipped in Skorzene’s special forces. Ten vehicles, with this batch of tanks, they can hold on for enough time!

The tank occupies most of the volume of the cargo warehouse and is cleverly fixed. In the other half of the cargo warehouse, there are their individual equipment, 75mm recoilless guns, neatly placed in the box, the same Fixed on the floor, while the soldiers ride in the space on both sides.

The number of people carried is not more than one glider, only 50 fighters, and these 20 gliders, carrying a thousand fighters, they will be the first people to land in Brest, they rely on these equipment , Persist until the arrival of the follow-up troops.

On the other hand, it is not easy to tow these gliders away. In the history of later generations, German engineers had to rack their brains and come up with various methods.

For example, I first used three transport planes to tow, and it turned out that the danger was too high, it was simply walking a tightrope in the air!

Later, two HE111 aircrafts were used for towing. In order to avoid danger, the two aircrafts were simply spliced ​​together from the middle, and an additional engine was added at the junction of the wings of the two aircrafts to form a unique aircraft like He111Z. It can be regarded as solving the problem of traction.

Fortunately, there is no problem now. Germany already has an advanced intercontinental bomber, the Junkers JU-290 bomber. This advanced four-engine large bomber can tow ME321 gliders.

Now, this is the scene. Twenty Junkers-290 bombers are already in place. Behind them, the heavy ME321 gliders are towed to take off.

As a heavy glider, ME321 has a total of five crew members, including 1 pilot, 1 communications officer, 1 carrying commander, and 2 machine gunners. The fixed weapon on the plane is a 7.9mm MG15 machine gun protruding from the upper part of the cargo door of the nose.