Gotha Go 244

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Gotha Go 244 was a transport aircraft used by the Luftwaffe during World War II.

1 Development
2 Operational history
3 Variants
- 3.1 Go 244A
- 3.2 Go 244B
4 Specifications (Go 244B-2)
5 Related content

[edit] Development

The Go 244 was the powered version of the Gotha Go 242. After the fall of France, the German army came across large stockpiles of the Gnome-Rhone 14M radial engines. It was decided to use these engines to modify Go 242 gliders, the modification also added a tricycle undercarriage. They hoped that by doing this they would be able to increase the performance as well as operational versatility. But the engines proved to be underpowered. After the invasion of Russia in June 1941, the Germans captured large stockpiles of the Shvetsov M-25A radial engines. But they proved to be just as underpowered as the French engines. The A series of the Go 244 were prototypes and some were powered by BMW 132 radial engines. The B series was the main production model. 43 were built as full production models and 133 were converted from Go 242B.

[edit] Operational history

The first production units enter Luftwaffe service in May 1942. It came in several variants and was well armed for a powered glider. This model was used almost exclusively on the Eastern Front.

[edit] Variants

[edit] Go 244A

Go 244A-1 - prototype, used the BMW 132 radial engine

[edit] Go 244B

Go 244B-1 - production version, with fixed landing gear
Go 244B-2 - B-1 with improved landing gear including a larger semi-retractable nose wheel
Go 242B-3 - paratroop-carrying version of B-1 with double rear doors
Go 244B-4 - paratroop-carrying version of B-2 with doors of B-3 and landing gear of B-2
Go 244B-5 - training version with dual controls