Hi Oliver,
None surviving is a handicap and obviously it was a bit ahead of some of the technology needed, but a lot of it seems pretty right.
Me322 on Wikipedia
Coincedentally, I just stumpled upon Reel A2059 available here, with hundreds of pages of information on the Curtiss C-76 Caravan:
While the Caravan at around 28,000 lbs gross weight was a lot smaller than the Me 323, the general idea of having an aircraft that was cheaply produced, consisted of non-strategic materials, and did not need to achieve high performance, was very similar. The C-76 was actually set up for mass-production, but in contrast to Messerschmitt, Curtiss really got it all "pretty wrong", and the prototypes and pre-series aircraft were quite disappointing, leading to the type being cancelled quite quickly.
From the documents on the reel, the C-76 seems to have been overweight, statically and dynamically unstable with an inacceptable centre-of-gravity-range, and structurally dangerously weak, in addition to suffering from control issues in elevator and aileron.
A larger counterpart, but at 50,000 lbs still not anywhere near as big as the Me 323, was requested from Fairchild (who had a lot of experience in wood construction). Fairchild had a look at the specifications and asked to be allowed to build a metal aircraft instead. In the light of the C-76 experience, I'd say that probably was a good call.
Regards,
Henning (HoHun)
