Italeri 119 1/72 He-111 Z-1 Zwilling German Glider

[Dave W]

I t

The heavy glider concept was the brainchild of these two men.

Udet and Messerschmitt.

Here is an early sketch made by Messerschmitt for Udet to show how a heavy glider might be towed.



The problem with multiple aircraft towing, the so called 'Troika-Schlepp' was the danger of flying into each others tows. Messerschmitt's early concept was refined somewhat, but the danger remained.

This diagram for four Bf 110s making the tow shows the problem nicely. The numbers are the length of the tows in metres.



They managed to reduce the number of tugs to three using He 111s



Or Bf 110s



To get going the Me 321 was given rockets, making a RATO.



A single Ju 90 was also used but the ultimate tug was the He 111 'Zwilling'. It was created in 1941 and entered service in 1942. It could tow a fully loaded Me 321, though rockets were needed for take off.

Odd as it looks it really was an operational aircraft by 1942. At least twelve were built.



The He 111 Z was also capable of towing two Go 242 gliders at the same time. The Go 242 was much used by the Luftwaffe.

BTW the Me 321 was the unpowered glider, the Me 323 was the powered aircraft.

Cheers

Steve

I think it was MPM who once did a rather expensive Resin 1/48 scale ME321 or 323 kit.A monster of a model!.

[stona]

At 1/48 the 55m wingspan would come out at about 115 cm or 45 inches!

That really is big, far too big for me. Where would you put such a monster?

Cheers

Steve

[Dave W]

http://www.cmkkits.com/en/aircraft/messerschmitt-me-323-gigant/

It's out of production now.But it did exist and with a hefty price tag!.

[Ian M]

So any one going to buy that and build it in the Weird aircraft GB... Just asking

Ian M

[Gern]

Wasn't there some mention of using two of the Revell 1/32 He111 kits to scratch one of these last year - or was that just one of my daft ideas?!

Gern

[stona]

Wasn't there some mention of using two of the Revell 1/32 He111 kits to scratch one of these last year - or was that just one of my daft ideas?!Gern

You'd need to get a fifth engine from somewhere. That could be a very expensive kit bash

Cheers

Steve

[Dave W]

Wasn't there some mention of using two of the Revell 1/32 He111 kits to scratch one of these last year - or was that just one of my daft ideas?!Gern

Sounds a great (and expensive) idea.i reckon you would need 3 kits in all.One kit just for engine number 5.

[Alan 45]

Why not do it using the small 1/144 scale and use the left over one in a crash dio

[eddiesolo]

Or just buy the kit...o_O

Si

[stona]

Here's some gun camera footage of an He 111 Z and its Gotha tows being shot down. Bad quality even for WW2 gun camera footage, but you get some interviews as well.

http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/F01446/

When I say interviews I mean several incredibly amateurish attempts by a film crew to cajole the pilots/radio operator to tell their story. Good stuff nonetheless.

Cheers

Steve

[Ian M]

Or just buy the kit...o_OSi

And then buy the Goliath glider which they also make as a kit in the same scale....:-O