The Airspeed Horsa resulted from an air ministry requirement issued in October 1940 for a troop carrying glider with double the troop carrying capacity of the American Waco Hadrian. The Horsa consisted of thirty different sub assemblies buily by woodworking sub contractors such as furniture manufacturers. These were assembled at RAF maintainence units and test flown, with some 3000 examples being built in this way. The Horsa could accomodate a maximum of 25 troops and with a hinged nose could accept small vehicles. The Horsa was generously flapped so that it could land in small fields and had a jettisionable main undercarriage for rough surfaces.
The Horsa was used for the first time in the allied landings in Sicily. Subsequently the Horsa was used extensively by the British and the American armed forces during the D-Day invasion of France, the crossing of the Rhine, and most famously during Operation Market Garden.