Gotha Go 244

The Gotha Go 244 was a transport aircraft designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Gotha. It was operated by the Luftwaffe during the Second World War. It was the powered version of the Gotha Go 242 military glider transport. While studies into a powered model of the Go 242 had commenced relatively early in the glider's development, one of the major factors in what would become the Go 244 was the German's capturing of a large quantity of Gnome-Rhône 14M radial engines following the fall of France in June 1940. Three prototypes were created by modifying Go 242s; these were fitted with engines such as the BMW 132 and the Shvetsov M-25 A. Despite the unimpressive performance of the Gnome engines, Luftwaffe officials were keen to make use of existing inventory, thus the majority of production standard Go 244s were powered by this engine. The first Go 244s were delivered to operational units based in Crete, Greece in March 1942; the type would also see action in both North Africa and the Eastern Front. Far fewer Go 244s were constructed in comparison to the Go 242, which officials ultimately decided to focus their production capacity upon instead. Some figures, such as Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch, criticised the aircraft as being defective, lacking sufficient range, and operationally limited. A mixture of Junkers Ju 52 or Messerschmitt Me 323 transport aircraft supplemented and eventually replaced the Go 244 in Luftwaffe service.

Summary from Wikipedia, photo via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA.