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Aviation History
1943
1943 - 0430.PDF
1/2 FLIGHT FEBRUARY 1943 «... WAR GLIDERS TWIN TOW. Multiple towing of gliders has been the subject of recentexperiments. A Vultee-Stinson 0/49 (the Vigilant in the R.A.F.) is shown towing two light training gliders in staggered formation. attack. The flying army that lands its forces in the enemy's own country or behind his lines is composed of three.main groups. First there are the paratroops, dropped from big transport aircraft, which form the spearhead of the attack. They are the shock troops who, taking the defenders by surprise, seize airfields, cut communications and generally do their best to create confusion. Then come the troop- carrying gliders in their squadrons, casting off from their tugs and gliding swiftly down into any and every field, spilling infantry, squad by squad, until whole regiments and even divisions are in action. Thirdly come the trans- port aircraft to land on the captured airfields with ammuni- tion, foods and all kinds of supplies for the ground forces, even including tanks, guns, jeeps and other compact forms of ground transport. The whole operation, of course, must have adequate fighter cover, for on this, plus the degree of initial surprise achieved and the speed and timing of the affair, depends not only its ultimate success, but Its cost to the attackers in men and gliders. • . To "some extent, however, troop-carrying gliders must always be regarded as "consumable munitions," because even under the best conditions, namely when their fighter umbrella maintains complete protection during the- land- ings, it will be inevitable that a fair proportion of the gliders will not be in fit condition to be flown off again, even DESERT DERELICT. Many German gliders were found, abandoned by the enemy,when the advancing Eighth Army captured airfields in Libya. This Gotha 242 has not ploughed up the ground in a heavy landing ; the earthworks are blast wallsthrown up to protect it from the effects of "near misses." though they may have landed their occupants successfully ; whether it will be possible and worth while to repajr them later on depends on a number of factors. It is chiefly for this reason that the troop-carrying type of war glider does not require the same degree of care to be lavished upon its construction as does the power-driven aircraft; anything in the nature of a high-quality finish would be wasted, for its useful life in action may well be limited to one operational flight. Neither is a very high aerodynamic standard required, since a steep gliding angle with a slow landing speed is all to the good. [A flat glide may be desirable to reach a field, and low drag conserves tug power.—ED.] Numerical Limits During the Crete invasion one read newspaper stories of JU52S appearing over the island with trains of gliders in tow ranging from six to ten in number, according to their individual size. Such reports, however, can safely be discounted. Thus the idea that minimum drag in gliders would permit more to be towed by any one tug does not apply; other considerations impose a limit on how many can safely be got into the air behind the tug. In general terms, therefore, a sturdily built, slab-sided glider of com- paratively rough finish meets most functional requirements, and even then it is necessary to fit spoilers to the wings to ensure a mini- mum time interval-between casting off and landing. Smaller gliders, of the type used chiefly for training Army glider-pilots, produced both in this country and America are generally quite well finished and aerodyrramically much cleaner than the big troop-carriers. While some of these might well be pressed into operational service if the need ever arose, they are not prim- arily in the "consumable munitions" category, and, as trainers, an efficient gliding angle is desirable to give the pupil the longest possible time in the air after each cast-off during the pre- liminary stage of his instruction. The fat t that some of them land at a fairly high speed may even be icgarded as an advantage in a trainer; it provides useful practice in judging the landing approach all the more accurately. Training in this specialised form of attack has been going on for a long time both in this country and i" America. Obviously it is divided hit" two main sections: the training "' glider pilots and the training of the
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