Gotha’s Twin-Boom Troopers FORE RST LIGHT on the fateful morning of 10 May 1940, the airfields of Ostheim and Butzweilerhof, on the ‘outskirts of Cologne, provided venues for the launching of an entirely new and decidedly audacious weapon: the assault transport glider. At 0430 hours, 41 DFS 230A gliders of Lufilandegeschwader 1, the first “Airlanding” unit of the Luftwaffe and the first of its kind in the world, became airborne behind their Ju 52/3m tugs. Their complement of Some 400 highly-trained assault troops from Sturm Abteilung Koch were about to initiate a series of pre-emptive attacks at the time unique in the annals of warfare. This force had been assigned four target Emacl fortifications strategically situated on the Albert Canal aand the vitally important Kanne, Veldwezelt and Vroenhoven bridges. Such was the success to be enjoyed by these slder- bbome troops that, within months, almost every aircratt manufacturing nation had followed Germany's lead and initiated design and development of troop- and freight-carr ing gliders, In Germany itself, the many doubts as to the Viability of such unpowered aircraft in warfare had been dispelled by the relative ease with which the occupants of the sliders had attained their objectives. The "modern equivalent ‘of the legendary Trojan Horse”, as the Generallufizeugmeiste Ernst Udet, had described the new assault vehicle, had proved itll. "The assault transport glider had been born almost casually: its potential had een accepted by few, but its principal proponents, such as Udet and General Robert Ritter von Grim, were influential enough to overcome the indifference of the Technischen Amt of the Reichslufifahriministerium. It was thus that an innovative concept had been forged and hhoned before, on that late spring morning almost $0 years ago, itwasto provide the vital element inasintrepid an operation as any conceived to that time. Finally convinced that the glider was a valuable weapon, the Reichsluftfahriministerium (RLM) lost no time in demanding the development of unpowered transport aireraft of much PAGE 286 AIR INTERNATIONAL/DECEMBER 1988 greater capacity than offered by the DFS 230A. Dipl-In ‘Albert Kalkert of the Gothaer Waggonfabrik, which had been responsible for the series manufacture of the DFS 230 — and had collaborated closely in its development with its designer, Hans Jacobs — had already forescen such a requirement and hhad undertaken preliminary studies for such gliders, There- fore, once the requirement of the RLM had crystallised, Kalkert was able to submit definitive proposals fora glider in ‘what the Technische Amt now saw as the “medium” category, ‘These proposals were highly orignal n concept, being based, fon the idea of a large, uninterrupted cargo hold with direct aceess for loading at near ground level; effectively, a winged container. In order to achieve the direct loading feature a shoulder-mounted wing arrangement was adopted, with the tail surfaces earried by booms originating atthe forward wing spar, the fuselage taking the form of a constant-section pod, the tail of which was hinged to provide straight-in access to the freight hold. The twin-boom configuration was not, in itsel novel, but it had not previously been employed by a transport aircraft of the size envisaged by Kalkert, and its advantages ‘were immediately obvious to the Technische Amt which allocated high priority to the project and assigned the designation Go 242. ‘The Go 242 featured a two-spar wooden wing with plywood. skinning from the leading edge to the 5 including the control surfaces, being covered by fabric. The booms, which extended aft from the mainspar and terminated in vertical tal surfaces, were also of wooden construction and ‘carried the one-piece rectangular tailplane between their ‘extremities. The fuselage was a welded steel-tube structure of retangular section and fabric covered, its rear portion being hinged atthe top just aft of the wing trailing edge to providean ‘opening the full cross section of the body. Accommodation ‘Was provided for two crew members seated side-by-side in an extensively glazed fuselage nose, good vision forthe crew being ‘mandatory for towing operations and landings on unfamiliar ground. Up to 21 fully-equipped troops could be housed by thehold. The undercarriage consisted of three steel skids equipped with Kronprinz oleo shock-absorber struts, but for take-off the nose-mounted skid was semi-retracted and a cross-axle- {ype twin-wheel jettisonable dolly fitted. ‘Such was the importance and urgency attached to develop- ‘ment ofthe Go 242 that series production was ordered “off the ddrawing board” in the late autumn of 1940, Dipl-ing Kalkert leaving the Gothaer Waggonfabrik at this time to become technical director of the Reparaturwerke Erfurt, his place being taken by Ing Hinerjiger. By the time the first (wo prototypes, the Go 242 VI and V2, began their flight test, programme in the spring of 1941, the 12 pre-production Go 2424-0 gliders bad attained an advanced stage on the assembly line. Apart from some revision of the vertical tal surfaces, the first Go 242A.0s differed in no. major respect from the prototypes, although later pre-production examples were 10 introduce a break in wing trailing edge at approximately half span, clipped rather than rounded wing-tips, a reduetion in wing-root incidence, aileron hinge fairings and balances, extended tailbooms (along the underside of the wing to the ‘mainspar) and some structural strengthening of the booms The pre-seies Go 242A-0s were delivered to the Luftwafle early in August 1941 By comparison with the later Go 242A0s, the initial production model of the glider, the Go 242A-I, had deeper {ailbooms which protruded below the wing surfaces. The towline coupling inthe extreme nose could absorb a strain of 59 tons (6,0 tonnes), and a braking “plough” was introduced fon the nose skid, Provision was made for a defensive armament of up to four 7.9mm MG 15 machine guns, one ‘mounted in the roof ofthe cockpit, one firing from theextreme rear ofthe fuselage nacelle, and two mounted to fie from side windows. Thirty-six Go 242A-Is followed the pre-series aircraft in September, and no fewer than 253 being delivered by the Gothaer Waggonfabrik by the end ofthe year when the parent concern was joined in the manufacturing programme by the Hartwig factory at Sonneburg. Meanvbile, six Lasten- seglerstaffein were being formed on the Go 242. During the winter of 1941-42, snow trials were conducted with the Go 242 by a Gotha special evaluation team at the subsidiary of the Rechlin Erprobungsstlle in the vicinity of Dorpat (Tartu), Estonia. For these trials Go 242s were fitted ‘with special “snow shoes". These were known as Boviskufen (Boat Skids”) and, flexible around their longitudinal and GOTHA Go 2428-1 Above and below) An early Go 2424-0 sehich diffred from later ‘samples baving slimmer alboonismountedentely above the wings anbroken taper wing trailing edges and rounded wingtips (Below) A Go 2424-1 photographed at Athens-Tatetin 1942 daring re supply misions nthe Balkans Gotha Go 242A-1 Specification Performance: Max gliding speed, 180 mph (290 knvhy: max Towing spesd. 149 mph (240 kmh) tow cruise speed (with 352) hm ge tu [30mph 210k): time to 6 $602 O00 rs) Under tow Ju 823m), 2 min: liding speed with 40 dep fay, 134 mph (300 km/h Landing speed (without Aap), 87 mp ( mh (oth 40 deg Aap), 68 mph (110 km/h); best lide ang 116 102 mp 164 kmh, ‘Weighs: Erp ight, 7.055 fy (3.200 kg operational emp SDP Tb (3880 hah normal loaded, 14.981 Tb (600 kg), max load, 16,093 1b (7 300 ke), Dimension: Span, 0 4 (24 50m); lena, St 10in (15.80, ‘height 13 18 in (4.70 my) wg ars, 698 29g ft (440m) Armament: Two. 3-mm MG 13 and two 7mm MG él ‘machine guns with provision for up to eight #.9-mm MG 34 ‘chine guns rng terally though cabin windows, PAGE 287,