In the ‘70s, when visiting New York, I often got my hair
cut by a barber in mid-town Manhattan named Tony. He was about my parents’ age
and had been an airborne trooper in WWII. Tony told me about his glider landing
east of the beaches in Normandy, France, in the early hours of 6 June 1944,
D-day. His glider hit the ground hard and disintegrated. Tony, battered and
bruised, thankfully, survived the crash and the rest of the war.
Under contract with the U.S. Army Air Forces from 1942 to
1948, the Waco Aircraft Company of Troy, Ohio, designed and built, along with
16 contactors, 13,909 of the CG-4A multi-purpose gliders. The aircraft had the
capacity to carry 13 fully equipped airborne troops, a Jeep, a 75mm howitzer,
six medical evacuation litters or several specialized packages, e.g. a field
weather station, of up to 4,197 pounds (1,904 kg). The CG-4a was 48 ft 8 in
(14.8 m) long, with a wingspan of 83 ft 8 in (25.5 m) and a gross weight of
7,500 lb (3,402 kg). It was most often towed by a Douglass C47 Skytrain. The
glider was used by the U.S. Army Air Forces, the U.S. Navy, the Royal Air Force
and the Royal Canadian Air Force.
Designed to be light, the CG-4A was built with a frame of
wood and some aluminum tubing wrapped in painted canvas. The main wheels, under
the wings, were only used for take-off. During flight, the whole wheel assembly
would be disconnected, and the glider would land on the skids on the bottom of
the body. When the aircraft was used to carry cargo, like a Jeep, the entire
cockpit would be hinged upward allowing access to interior. Unfortunately, if
the plane stopped abruptly on landing the cargo tended to jump forward killing
the pilots. The CG-4A was nicknamed “The Silent Death Trap”.
#Waco #CG-4A #glider #D-Day #WWII #Normandy #Blender
#Cycles
