TROOP TRANSPORT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 78, 5 July 1943, Page 3

TROOP TRANSPORT

NEW NAZI MACHINE “POWER-OPERATED GLIDER” London, May 7. Details of the Me323, a strange new German aeroplane—described as a ‘ power-operated glider”—have been released by the Air Ministry. It marks a new development in the equipment oi airborne troops. This new machine is made by the Messerschmitt company. But it is not a slim, deadly aeroplane of lightning speed like the fighters. It is an ugly, lumbering creature, made literally from bits and pieces. It probably flies no faster than the warplanes of 1914-18. Nevertheless, it may render the ordinary ‘‘motor-less” glider obsolete for most military purposes. Its development was, in fact, foreseen here, and suggestions for the production of ‘‘power-ope-rated” gliders were submitted \in this country many months ago. TEN WHEELS One proposal was that they should be produced in Canada, where both Ihe timber and the wood-workers needed for their construction are plentiful. As far as is known, how ever, Germany is the only country actually to produce a “power-operated” glider of useful size. The Me323 can carry 130 troops or about 10 tons of equipment. This might be made up of guns, motor trucks, or small tanks. Arranged beneath’ the fuselage, like the feet of a caterpillar, there are no fewer than 10 wheels in sets of two.

j hese would not only assist landing on rough ground by distributing the load over a large “wheel base," but might also permit the use of much cheaper materials than are required for the two or three wheels of a high-per-formance bomber.

SIX CHEAP ENGINES One of the most important features of its power plant is that its six 700-800 h.p. engines are cheap to make and can be produced in factories unable to produce the ultra-high performance motors required by fighters and bombers. In the case of the Me323, the Germans have made use of the French Gnome-Rhone company for the engines The “power-operated” glider must not, of course, be compared with the big, high-powered air transport. Its life would not be long, and it would most certainly be regarded as “expandable.” This is an ordinary glider-plus. Its own small, cheap engines made it independent of a tow from a bomber, which would otherwise have to be diverted from its proper job—bombing—to act"as a “tug.”