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The Fieseler Fi 333 was a design for a transport aircraft that would have carried its cargo in detachable pods, allowing for a very rapid turn-around on the ground, and for the use of a number of different purpose-built pods to carry cargo, passenger, paratroops or fuel.
The key to the design was the use of a very tall braced non-retractable undercarriage, with two wheels on each side, mounted in tandem. The undercarriage was made non-retractable to give it the strength to deal with the heavy loads the aircraft was designed to carry, while its unusual height would have allowed the cargo pod to be carried under the flattened fuselage. The aircraft would also have been able to carry small vehicles, aircraft fuselages or wings in place of the pod.
Three prototypes were built, but without the distinctive undercarriage. Smaller versions of the tandem undercarriage were tested on the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch and on the Messerschmitt Bf 108 Taifun, but that was as far as work reached before the project was cancelled.
Aircraft of the Luftwaffe 1935-1945, Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage.
Combines a good background history of the Luftwaffe with a comprehensive examination of its aircraft, from the biplanes of the mid 1930s to the main wartime aircraft and on to the seemingly unending range of experimental designs that wasted so much effort towards the end of the war. A useful general guide that provides an impressively wide range of information on almost every element of the Luftwaffe
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