Biplane Gliders

Aeromilitaria 4-1998

  In October 1942, the RAE drew up a report on heavy tank-carrying gliders. The Hamilcar could land a tank in a small unprepared field but the only likely tug was the Stirling at short range and with a comparatively high landing speed for the glider.
  One other method would be to save weight by making the glider take-off and land using the tank's tracks. By dispensing with the undercarriage and not requiring a strengthened floor, 2,500 lbs could be saved. In a monoplane glider, the weight would have to be suspended well forward to balance the weight of the rear fuselage and tail unit and even then the CG would be aft of the wheelbase.
  Alan Muntz pointed out that this would not arise with a tail-less design and put forward a design for a tail-less glider that would carry a 19,000-lb tank which would take-off and land on the tank tracks.
  The RAE study considered that a biplane glider would be a possibility. It would have a short tail arm so the CG could be further forward. The span would be less than a monoplane and would make it less susceptible to side winds and less likely to overturn.
  As a first step, a glider was sketched out to carry a Daimler scout car. This weighted 23,500 lbs and its wheels would probably have been coped more easily at going from zero to 55 mph (the estimated landing speed) than a set of tank tracks. The CG was calculated to be slight forward of the rear wheels of the vehicle. However, the drag of a biplane glider would be higher than that of a Hamilcar, which went ahead as the standard British heavy glider.