Gotha Go 145 Being Rebuilt in the City of its Birth

In the city of Gotha, Germany, the worlds only intact Gotha Go 145 fuselage is being reconstructed for display by the city that birthed it. While there are reportedly two other crashed remains of these planes in the possession of the German Museum of Technology in Berlin and the Norwegian Aviation Museum in Bodø, Norway; both examples are reportedly severely damaged and are in storage with no plans for restoration on the agenda of either organization.

The Gotha Go 145 served as a Luftwaffe trainer aircraft starting from 1935 when production models entered service and in 1942 after experiencing how effective Russian night harassment raids were against their troops, the Germans pressed the Go 145 into service for harassment missions of their own against Russian forces on the Eastern Front.

This particular example had been on display in a beer garden in Munich before it was shipped to Gotha in 2010. Upon its arrival, the planes tubular steel frame was discovered to be in worse condition than anticipated, severely corroded and wracked. Civic-minded local construction crane fabrication company, Gothaer Fahrzeugtechnik GmbH has taken on the project of recreating an all new fuselage, using the old as a template, along with some surviving drawings and photographs. New wings are being fabricated in Potsdam and an original Argus As10C engine will be fitted.

Poetically, Gothaer Fahrzeugtechnik is located on the very spot where all of Gotha’s aircraft were manufactured, until their production of aircraft ceased in 1954.