Why were these 2 planes stuck together? (World War II)

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steel and ars nova with all of the epic battles customization and content variety world of warships offers the most in-depth and easy to access naval experience for console gamers with a thirst for conquering the seas why were these two planes stuck together the heinkel he 111z weird tech world war ii 1941-1945 in early 1944 a british reconnaissance spitfire pilot on patrol over northern france reported seeing what appeared to be two german heinkel 111 bombers joined together as one aircraft at first british intelligence dismissed this as being either an optical illusion caused by a pair of enemy bombers flying together in close formation or the pilot just having an overactive imagination in fact what the pilot had just seen was a heinkel 111 111z on a training flight a few weeks later an raf mosquito shot one down along with two gotha gliders that it was towing finally confirming that such a bizarre aircraft did actually exist the heinkel 111z had been quickly developed back in 1941 as an aircraft that would have enough power to tow the newly introduced me321 heavy cargo glider off the ground and into the air this new glider had been aptly named the gagant or the giant the intention was that this extra-large glider would be used in operation sea lion the invasion of britain planned for september 1940 but after the battle of britain when the raf managed to retain dominance of the skies over the german luftwaffe on october 31 1940 this idea was abandoned it was nevertheless decided by german high command to continue the project as it could prove useful in supplying and transporting their troops around the vast expanse of the russian front the me321 was a truly gigantic aircraft with a wingspan of 180 feet or 55 meters and it could carry up to 130 soldiers or around 23 tons of supplies and equipment this was over six times more than the standard german transport plane the junkers ju52 could carry at that time and crucially the me321 was able to carry armored fighting vehicles something the ju52 could not do so the germans saw the main role of the me321 as being a transport aircraft rather than as an assault glider but it soon became apparent that the problem with the me321 was actually getting it off the ground even when using three powerful me110c twin-engine fighter bombers to tow it into the air it proved to be a far too dangerous and complicated operation so the aircraft manufacturer heinkel came up with a radical but highly practical solution they simply joined two of their he 111 twin engine medium bombers together and where they were connected added an extra engine making five in total giving additional power to the plane the development of this new hybrid aircraft was quick and relatively hassle-free as it was ready to enter service in 1942 soon though it became apparent that despite its engines having a combined power output of over 6 500 horsepower in total which made it that much more powerful than the modern day usc 130 hercules cargo aircraft which has a maximum of 4 700 horsepower it was still badly underpowered when trying to take off towing a fully laden me321 gagant so it was decided to add underwing mounted starturfa jettisonable assisted takeoff booster units that would assist the he-111z during takeoff and would then be released and allowed to parachute back to the ground to be refilled and reused later the plane itself had a crew of seven and had the pilot along with the chief mechanic radio operator navigator and gunner all in the port side fuselage while the starboard fuselage housed the co-pilot the second mechanic and another gunner surprisingly in service it was well liked by its crews and it had an incredibly long range in excess of 1200 miles or about 1900 kilometers this could be further extended by the use of fuel drop tanks allowing it to stay in the air for up to 10 hours the one major drawback with the he-111 z's design was its poor towing speed that was barely more than 130 miles per hour or 209 kilometers per hour which was less than a third the speed of a us p-51 mustang long-range fighter so it was particularly vulnerable to attacks from allied fighters therefore in its service career it was kept as far away from the front line as possible in 1942 it was considered being used in a possible invasion of malta as well as to help leave the german sixth army stuck in the besieged city of stalingrad but neither deployments were ever carried out because of its vulnerability to enemy fighters only twelve he-111 z's were ever produced these were used by the luftwaffe to support its fleet of around 200 me321 heavy gliders the german air force had had high hopes for this variant of their tried and trusted bomber and had planned to produce a heavy bomber version as well as a dedicated high altitude reconnaissance version by 1944 the bomber version the z2 had become quite a viable proposition as the luftwaffe's latest heavy bomber the heinkel he-177 griffin was proving to be an embarrassing failure this was due to serious engine cooling and maintenance problems that often cause them to catch fire while in flight the proposed z2 would have had a powerful 20 millimeter cannon mounted in a turret on top of the mid sections of the fuselages as well as being able to carry the new henshaw hs293 anti-ship radio control guided missiles the z3 reconnaissance version would have such a long range that in theory it should have been able to reach new york from german-controlled air bases in france but any chances of these variants being deployed any further was dashed later in 1944 when hitler decided that all bomber production was deceased so that the factories could concentrate on producing more fighter aircraft this was a futile attempt to try to stem the many massive allied air raids that were destroying industrial installations in germany at the time none of the heikel he-111 aircraft survived the war but the twin aircraft concept did live on when the americans successfully developed a twin mustang aircraft called the north american f-82 262 of these radar-equipped aircraft were produced and they were in service with the united states air force from 1946 to 1953. the me321 was eventually developed into the ma323 which had six engines therefore eliminating the need for the tug aircraft to get them airborne you

Channel: Simple History

Views: 1,376,167

Keywords: simple history, animated history, educational, education, Why were these 2 planes stuck together?, Heinkel He 111z, weird, weird tech, ww2, luftwaffe, Me 321 heavy cargo glider, The Gigant, RAF, engineering, Ju 52, Me 110C, Starthilfe, P-51 Mustang, Heinkel He 177 ’Griffin’, North American F-82, double planes

Id: H8Xwif_sWTA

Length: 8min 9sec (489 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 25 2021