Messerschmitt Me 323 "Gigant", Arado 232 "Millipede" And Advanced German WW2 Transport Aircraft

The Junkers Ju 52, affectionately known by those who flew it as Iron Annie or Auntie U or simply Aunt. The Trimotor

transport

, which also served as a bomber, would become legendary not only for its longevity, but also for its flexibility. In fact, it was as much a symbol of the Luftwaffe as the Stuka and the 109. The JU 52 was like the DC-2 and, I would say, three iconic

aircraft

because it was reliable and three engineers, both very reliable, and one wonders why. that. It was not used more frequently. In. The 3 engine design in the UK and USA, as it was very common in Italy, was used quite widely in Germany and yet there are rare cases in the states, such as in the Marshall Ford era.

But it's a great solution. The JU 52 was built from the same corrugated iron material that the junker company had relied on for more than two decades, almost since the Great War. during this. Aircraft much larger than the 52, such as the giant Yunker G38, also used the same shroud. However, as the 1930s drew to a close, Juncker's signature steering wheel began to look a little tired, especially compared to other foreign types such as the American DC-2 and DC3. However, the aunt remained employed. In fact, the Junkers company had designed a replacement for the Tia before the start of World War II.

Although they still wanted to retain the tri-engine configuration, it was a completely new

aircraft

in most other respects. You have 252 was a clear difference from the very famous Ju 52. It had a soft and fresh water. A very large cargo hull, capacity 1. Its main features were. It had a beautiful loading map. It was operated hydraulically in the rear of the aircraft. Now this was a tailwheel airplane, but after landing the rap could be operated and it would lower and raise the tail of the craft, and it did. Absolutely great. The amazing thing was that we did experiments to see how this thing would react to the plane and flight.

Y. At the main enemy aircraft exhibition in October 1945, we flew this plane with the ramp fully open as a trick. A guy sitting on one of the last steps of the ramp was obviously wearing a harness, but he was sitting there pretending to be smoking a cigarette. Well, it attracted a lot of clouds and it was quite surprising that this plane had this huge center gravity range and was very easy to swim in that situation. The JU 252 had a stablemate, the JU 352, which was made primarily of wood to reduce the use of aluminum. The JU 352 was less successful, although it was the first type of

transport

to use a tailgate ramp that provided a flat surface for loading.

Only 65 units were produced between the two models. When Germany was attacked on 2 fronts in 1944, they stopped being produced because the priority was more fighters to defend the Homeland. Another military transport, using a rare ramp, also emerged from Junkers' drawing boards. The JU 290 evolved from the four-engine Junkers 90 airliner, which showed promise as an

advanced

design just before the war. The Ju 90 aircraft, like most other aircraft of the time, had a tail bed, so when Junkers created a transport version they used the same lifting flap developed for the previous 252. Before that, the JU 290 transport was a large aircraft when it first entered service in August 1942.

When I flew the JU29J it was very. Impressed in the sense that it had a nice cabin design. A very comfortable strap. It was clearly a civil aircraft adapted to a military role. Like the damned Wolf 200, it was almost as armed. Not as heavily armed as the fucking 200, but still. It flew very well and. I think it would have been a comfortable liner with a little adjustment, a comfortable liner. Piston engine aircraft in the early days and indeed after the war, of course, the Americans had a group. The way I picked up planes, German planes.

After the war they were called the Watson Switzers. And Colonel Watson flew Gen. 290 back to America via Bermuda. Y. He was very impressed, as was I. Without a doubt, it was the largest land-powered aircraft in the Luftwaffe inventory. The type was 8 feet longer than the airplane version, had more powerful engines and a very considerable range. It was claimed, although never proven, that it operated direct flights between Germany and Japan. Smaller transports were also needed, even smaller than the anti-u. This need was met by converting a medium-sized glider into a powered aircraft. The Ghota 244 became available in 1943.

Created by simply adding two small radial engines to a standard production glider. In reality, the radials were manufactured in occupied France and as such had little impact on German war production. About 130 of this type were manufactured and they were useful for moving small numbers of troops or light vehicles over short distances. Using the same glider to power aircraft conversion, the Smith 323's massive airframe was another attempt to maximize the Luftwaffe's air assets. The green boys I saw. The pollen returns and the reversal of the sixth sense begins. I actually taxed all six and it wasn't worth it, but it's really just a matter of interest.

It was a huge album called straight to the corner, and what it really was was the deep model. And they had six known barrel anchors. And the four-engine had proven to be difficult and sufficient inventions and still needed some assisted takeoff, like the jaito or rocket assistance on takeoff, it has fewer towed gliders. Half like Zack 111's high school and they were a flop. However, in my opinion, you had three hand angle planes. Playing with all this, all the big deaths and all that, it was all a very dubious operation. But once you got the six-engine version running, it became practical.

But of course. Everything very slow. Due to its large size and low speed, the ME323 was an easy target and many were destroyed by the Allies. But when escorted by fighters, the ability to carry large loads was highly valued by the brand, especially in the chaos that became the Eastern Front. Blohm and Voss built another notable transport aircraft, a long-range seaplane called the Viking. The history of the BV222 is not different from that of the Ju 90. It was originally commissioned as a commercial seaplane. However, as the war approached, the Viking evolved into a large military transport that also performed some patrol duties. 6 powerful engines powered the Viking.

Initially fueled by gasoline, the BV222 was intended to be refueled at sea by submarines. Since submarines run on diesel, the practical solution was to convert the Viking to diesel engines. Bloom and Voss had another flying boat prototype that was even more

advanced

. The BV238 was designed to withstand more intense sea conditions than the Viking could withstand. Working only with submarines, he was expected to undertake very long missions. It is designed to be almost self-supporting and capable of handling many types of heavy loads. To assist with loading, the 238 was equipped with a huge forward watertight door in the bow.

This can be used similarly to landing craft on a beachhead. What you see here is just a service hatch located in the watertight door. To assist in cargo handling, there were derricks and winches on the hull, making the BV238 look more like a merchant ship than an aircraft. There was also a tunnel that ran along both wings, providing internal access to the six engines even when the seaplane was airborne. Only one, BV 238, was completed. It was destroyed by Allied fighters just before the end of the war. The latest example of Luftwaffe

gigant

ism came with the Junkers 390.

A section 290 with a very spacious 110-foot fuselage. To propel this enormous aircraft would require two more engines than the JU 290 and a much larger wing, more than 160 feet in span. The extra length of the wing actually required an extra set of wheels on each side to support the craft as it landed. Only two Younkers were built, three from the '90s. But even these required enormous resources, both in labor and materials. After the war, only one of the JU Three 90s was accounted for. This led to speculation about what happened to the other aircraft, as the type had more range than any other German aircraft.

If they already had a proven workhorse: the JU 52, why did the Third Reich care so much about a limited number of large transport aircraft? One possibility was that Germany had not prepared itself for a long war. The premise of Blitzkrieg was to achieve quick victory through lightning attacks. The Channel thwarted the blitzkrieg against Great Britain. With the rapid fall of France, crossing the English Channel became the Vermark's primary objective. This could be achieved in part by gliders, which gave rise to large transport aircraft such as the Giant. Often overlooked, there was another design that evolved during those turbulent years in the homeland, the Arado 232, sometimes called the all-rounder.

Shortly after Germany invaded Poland, the Air Ministry requested a replacement for the Ju 52. It was to be fitted with a rare boarding ramp and would use 2 of the newly developed BMW 801 radial engines. Aradu designers quickly came up with a brilliant design that incorporated the latest knowledge in transport aircraft. It had a rare loading ramp, but unlike most medium-sized transports of the time, it used a three-wheeled chassis. This type of wheel setup typically doesn't work on rough terrain. However, a Rado engineer solved the problem by placing a row of small rollers under each side of the fuselage.

If necessary, the main gear could be adjusted to kneel the aircraft. The 232 simply crawled over obstacles on its numerous wheels, giving it the nickname

millipede

. Naturally, at the end of World War II we were interested in bringing a lot of heavy material from Germany. Like wind tunnel equipment and even airplanes. And we were looking for Cardinal airplanes. We used a German aircraft for their other 232 I, known as the Centipede because of the large amount of hamburger feel it had and as part of the landing gear design. And this was a very effective system for operating on grass airfields that are certainly confined in the early stages.

And where it was very difficult to find traction in adverse weather conditions. The

millipede

-level loading ramp made it ideal for all types of loading, but the Arado 232 had one major problem. It came in the form of this aircraft, the successful Wolf 190, known as the Butcher Bird. The 190 used the same BMW 801 radial engines as the new Arado transport. After the German failure in the Battle of Britain there was no doubt that the new FW90 had priority over the BMW engines. The ERADO had to look elsewhere for suitable power plants, but there were none with the same power as the BMW 801.

To solve this problem, an A4 centipede engine with a larger wing was proposed. This change caused delays. The end result was that perhaps the best military transport of World War II was limited to a production run of less than 20 examples, leaving the aunt alone as a soldier. In the end, almost 5000JU50 were made of two. Many continued to fly around the world for several years after the war, including some with the RAF. But the aunt was not there. Only the Luftwaffe transport 2 Arado 232 Centipede was also flown by the Royal Air Force.