Me 323

I'm a big fan of airplanes! I'm generally addicted to all things mechanical. Gears, wheels, motors, cars, planes, rockets... all of it. Cross that with a love for history and you get a WWII aviation nut bag! Nothing brings rapid innovation like a full blown world war. Most people might be familiar with the greats... the B17's, the Mustangs, Spitfires, P-38's and P-47s. But there were just as many unusual creations that never left much of a mark.
We all know Germans were known for their big plans and super secret projects. I'm no fan of the Nazi plan by any stretch of the imagination but some of the remarkable projects they tossed into the sky rode the boundaries between pure recklessness and genuine cutting edge innovation. Perhaps you've heard they were the first to use rockets and to take shots at the flying wing design. But have you ever heard of the Messerschmitt 323? Maybe not.
When I was a kid I had seen a few pictures of one of these oddly shaped flying boxes. Never knew its name and never really looked into. I recently ran into this ugly bird and figured it was worth a blog. So here it for shits and grins...


The Me 323 was never an overly successful creation. It was built from several ideas that had already been in use. The concept was to create a light weight transport plane that could travel long distances to resupply forces along the Russian front as well as in Africa. She had a light weight body based on glider technology combined with six captured French 990 hp Gnome-Rhone 14 cylinder radial engines. The unusual mix of a massive wing and a canvas wrapped shell sounds a bit precarious at best. She could handle large cargo but never got a decent speed or ceiling. In actual combat, she was an easy target and suffered massive losses. On one run in 1943 while crossing the Mediterranean bound for Tunis, 14 of 16 323's were take out by British Spitfires.




Two gunner positions inside the wings of the plane.

Rockets were added to the wings to create lift on short runways. I don't think that technology was all figure out to well at the time.

If for whatever reason you've read this far... There you have it... The Me 323. Got to love this bird! She could very well be the ugly grandfather of all heavy lift aircraft in use today. Go drink a beer!