Gotha Go 244

The Gotha Go 244 was a German twin-engined transport aircraft of the Second World War, the powered version of the Go 242 glider. Its development was encouraged by the capture of a large stock of Gnome-Rhône 14M radial engines after the fall of France in 1940, and three Go 242 conversions served as prototypes, fitted with BMW 132, Gnome-Rhône and Shvetsov M-25 engines. The main production model, the Go 244B, had a wheeled tricycle undercarriage and carried fuel and oil in the tail booms; most were converted from Go 242B gliders, 133 in all, with a further 41 built as new airframes. The first examples reached units on Crete in March 1942 and the type flew in North Africa and on the Eastern Front, but it proved vulnerable and short of range, and Junkers Ju 52 and Messerschmitt Me 323 aircraft replaced it.