Original Item: One-Of-A-Kind. This is fantastic piece of WWII Aviation history! When many people picture airborne troops from the second world war, they immediately think of paratroopers jumping out of an open door on a plane. However, both sides also made use of troop gliders, towed by powered planes and then released, with a pilot on board responsible for safely landing it. They were for the most part single use items, and were abandoned after use. Often they were equipped with a parachute brake, which allowed the glider to deliver troops with a high degree of accuracy.

This is a very nice piece of canvas aircraft skin, cut off of a German glider during WWII. The piece measures 15 1/2" x 19", and shows a black swas in a whit circle surrounded by red, with green paint overall as camouflage. It is properly "doped", covered with a plasticized lacquer that is applied to fabric-covered aircraft. It tightens and stiffens fabric stretched over airframes, which renders them airtight and weatherproof, increasing their durability and lifespan. The canvas is not particularly heavy, most likely owing to the single use nature of the glider. It has some fold marks and a tear in it. We unfortunately do not know where it was recovered from.

We assume that this piece came from a DFS 230 German WWII Assault Glider, which was the longest use and most popular of the German gliders. It had a tubular steel fuselage frame with wooden frame wings, covered with aircraft canvas. While production ceased in 1943, these were used up until the end of the war. The other glider produced in large numbers was the Gotha Go 242, which could handle a heavier troop load, and also had a canvas skin. However, this glider saw limited us, so we assume this fabric is from the DFS 230.

A great piece of WWII militaria, ready to research and display! The fabric piece has been stored rolled up for a long time, and would definitely benefit from framing.

The glider had a fabric covered body to reduce weight. The DFS 230 was the first German combat glider, with a wingspan of 72 feet and fuselage 38 feet long. The first use of this aircraft took place on May 10, 1940. In the half-light of dawn, shortly after 5 a.m., ten 230s carrying a total of 78 assault troops swooped down and landed on top of a huge Belgian fort, Eben Emael, a barrier to AH's invasion of Belgium and Holland.

Belonging to the Luftlandegesch wader 1, the Luftwaffe's first "'Airlanding" Geschwader and the first unit of its kind in the world, each DFS 230A carried paratroops whose tasks were the storming of the Eben-Emael fortifications and the capture of the Kanne, Veldwezelt and Vroenhoven bridges which were to be held until the arrival of ground forces.

So successful was this operational initiation of the assault glider that virtually every aircraft manufacturing nation immediately followed Germany's lead and began the design and development of troop and freight-carrying gliders, while the Reichsluftfahrtministerium, which had previously expressed doubts concerning the operational value of Lastensegler (Cargo Gliders), promptly demanded that the highest priority be awarded the development and manufacture of larger aircraft in this category.