Hamilcar Glider with P-38 on top of it. A Mistel, perhaps?

[kitnut617]

I was browsing the internet looking for something and stumbled on this, I've no idea why it was in the listing as it's got nothing to do with what I was searching for.

I don't even know if it's for real or someones whiff.

[Mossie]

Interesting, wonder if it's a mistel, the Hadrian carrying it's own fighter escort, or maybe the P-38 is acting as a slip wing to give the glider more range.  Or non of the above!

[apophenia]

Nice find kitnut! This from a review of "Airborne Armour: Tetrarch, Locust, Hamilcar and the 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment, 1938-50" by Keith Flint.

"[A USAAF] officer saw a German Me109 on top of a small German assault glider and proposed we put a P-38 Lightning twin-engined fighter on top of the Hamilcar. An American C-54 or B-17 or B-24 4-engined plane tows the Hamilcar/Lightning into the air, then disconnects and flies back to base for another glider combo to take-off. From that point on the P-38's engines would keep the Hamilcar glider aloft all the way to the target since the power to take-off is drastically more than what's required to stay aloft!"

It sounds like the concept was eclipsed by the twin Mercury-powered Hamilcar Mk.X.

[kitnut617]

So it was a thought after all, when I saw the picture it looked like an observers recognition card from WW.II,  my Dad has three or four boxes of these as my Grandad was in the Observers Corp but as I had just about learnt all of those I couldn't remember seeing anything like it in them.