Airspeed Horsa

When the Air Ministry issued Specification X.26/40 during December 1940 which required a glider capable of transporting twenty five to thirty fully equipped paratroopers. Airspeed's design was produced by a team led by technical directory Hessell Tiltman. After submitting their design an order for seven Horsa prototypes followed. Two would be used for flight testing whilst the other five would undergo loading trials with the British Army. An Armstrong Whitworth Whitley was the aircraft used to tow the prototype Airspeed Horsa when, on the 12th September 1941, it flew for the first time.

There were two Horsa variants produced and both had a top speed of 100 mph with a crew of two pilots. The Horsa I could hold up to 25 troops and its tail section could be detached on landing. The Horsa II went further and could hold up to 28 troops and featured a hinged cockpit which allowed a range of equipment, such as jeeps, to be carried. The Royal Air Force started to receive their first examples in late 1941.

The Horsa's first operation occurred on the 19th November 1942, known as Operation Freshman. This saw a pair of Horsa, each towed by a Handley Page Halifax, set out to Norway so that the 34 airborne engineers could capture the Norsk Hydro Vemork plant. Due to bad weather the operation was a disaster. The tow rope between the first Halifax and Horsa failed, resulting in a crash landing for the Horsa. The second Halifax crashed, with the loss of all crew members, this caused the Horsa it was towing to have to make a forced landing which killed both pilots and injured a number of airborne engineers. In total forty one people died, either in the accidents or were captured before the Germans executed them.

The first major use of the Horsa saw twenty seven take part in Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, which started on the 9th July 1943. The following year saw large numbers of the type take part in Operation Overlord, commonly known as D-Day, on the 6th June 1944. One of the most successful operations using the Horsa on this day saw Allied forces capture a number of bridges over the Caen Canal and River Orne in France in the early hours of the invasion. This led to one of the bridges over the River Orne being renamed after the aircraft.

The Airspeed Horsa also took part in Operation Market Garden (17th September 1944 - 25th September 1944) and it was Operation Varsity, which took place on the 24th March 1945, that was to be the aircraft's last contribution to the Second World War (1939 – 1945), seeing around 400 take part.

In total 3,799 aircraft were built.