Junkers Ju 322

The Junkers Ju 322 Mammut (German for mammoth) was a heavy transport glider for the Luftwaffe, shaped like a giant flying wing and designed in late 1940 as the Junkers EF 094 to do the same job as the Messerschmitt Me 321 Gigant. Because it had to be built from non-strategic materials it was an all-wooden design, a technology in which Junkers had little experience. It was meant to carry 20,000 kg of cargo, such as a Panzer IV tank or an 88 mm anti-aircraft gun, but a test with a battle tank compacted the cargo floor and the planned payload was cut to 16,000 kg and then to 11,000 kg. The first prototype made its maiden flight in April 1941, towed by a Junkers Ju 90, and proved highly unstable under tow before landing in a field from which tanks needed two weeks to tow it back. The Air Ministry dropped the project in May 1941 as an inherently poor design, and the two prototypes and 98 partly finished gliders were cut up for fuel.