14 Types of Military Glider Explained

Military gliders were built to land troops, artillery, vehicles, fuel, and even tanks where powered transports could not. This documentary explains military gliders by the jobs they were designed to perform, from precision assault and cargo missions to giant transports, fighter gliders, rotary-wing experiments, and postwar heavy designs. The story begins with DFS 230 gliders at Fort Eben-Emael and follows the Airspeed Horsa, Waco CG-4A, Soviet partisan gliders, the Hamilcar, Me 321 Gigant, training gliders, amphibious concepts, the BV 40 fighter glider, the Fa 225 rotary-wing experiment, the Cornelius XFG-1 fuel glider, the Antonov A-40 flying tank, powered derivatives, and the Yak-14. Along the way, it covers Pegasus Bridge, Sicily, Bastogne, the engineering limits of towing ever-larger aircraft, and why helicopters and powered transports eventually made combat gliders unnecessary. CHAPTERS 0:00 Precision Assault Gliders 2:24 Mass Troop Assault Gliders 4:55 General-Purpose Cargo Gliders 7:43 Light Logistics & Partisan Gliders 10:07 Heavy Vehicle & Tank Gliders 12:07 Giant Strategic Transport Gliders 14:25 Training Gliders 16:21 Amphibious Assault Gliders 17:33 Fighter Gliders 19:29 Rotary-Wing Gliders 21:20 Fuel Gliders 22:51 Vehicle-Integrated Gliders 24:33 Powered Gliders & Motorized Derivatives 26:29 Postwar Heavy Transport Gliders 28:24 Why Combat Gliders Disappeared Which military glider concept do you think made the most sense for its intended mission? #MilitaryHistory #MilitaryGliders #WWIIAviation