The DFS 331 was a transport glider prototype developed in a collaboration between DFS and Gotha. It was a twenty-seat troop transport designed by Hans Jacobs, who had previously produced the successful, nine seat DFS 230.
The visibility from the cockpit was good, with the entire nose being glazed, and the body was very wide, allowing it to carry light Flak guns and small military vehicles. A single prototype was built and flown in 1941. The project was passed over in favour of the Gotha Go 242.
Data from Die Deutsche Luftrüstung 1933-1945
- Crew: 2
- Capacity: 20 troops or 2,300 kilograms (5,071 lb) of cargo
- Length: 15.81 m (51 ft 10 in)
- Wingspan: 23 m (75 ft 6 in)
- Height: 3.55 m (11 ft 8 in)
- Wing area: 60 m2 (650 sq ft)
- Empty weight: 2,270 kg (5,004 lb)
- Gross weight: 4,770 kg (10,516 lb)
- Never exceed speed: 330 km/h (205 mph; 178 kn)
- Maximum glide ratio: 1:18
- Towing speed: 270 kilometres per hour (168 mph)
- Guns: 2x MG15 machine-guns
- Related development
- Aircraft of comparable role, configuration and era
- Related lists
- List of World War II military gliders
- List of military aircraft of Germany
- List of World War II military aircraft of Germany
- List of gliders
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to DFS aircraft.|
- Nowarra, Heinz; Force, Ed (1991). German Gliders in World War II. U.S.: Schiffer Publishing Ltd. ISBN 0-88740-358-1.