Silent Wings of History

[Mark James Boyd]

Was reading

www.af.mil/news/airman/0403/glider.html

and there's a part where they put 7,000 lbs of
sand bags and ammo to show off the cargo ability of the
XCG-16. The unsecured load shifted aft and porpised the thing and
killed the two glider test pilots.

Other stuff was interesting too. These things were
definitely not for soaring, just gliding. Pretty amazing idea,
not wasting the cost of engine to land troops.
What a heck of a way to be a pilot, eh?
And the way they snagged glders for aerotow.
Musta been a helluva ride...

also www.silentwingsmuseum.com/combat_gliders.html
"XCG-11 Made by Snead & Co."

hmmmm...I wonder if this was the predecessor to the PW-5? ;O

www.pointvista.com/WW2GliderPilots

also has some neat stuff. Glider pilot humor, too...

[Dave Martin]

At 08:48 23 February 2004, Mark James Boyd wrote:
>
>Was reading
>
>www.af.mil/news/airman/0403/glider.html
>
>and there's a part where they put 7,000 lbs of
>sand bags and ammo to show off the cargo ability of
>the
>XCG-16. The unsecured load shifted aft and porpised
>the thing and
>killed the two glider test pilots.
>
>Other stuff was interesting too. These things were
>definitely not for soaring, just gliding. Pretty amazing
>idea,
>not wasting the cost of engine to land troops.
>What a heck of a way to be a pilot, eh?
>And the way they snagged glders for aerotow.
>Musta been a helluva ride...
>
>also www.silentwingsmuseum.com/combat_gliders.html
>'XCG-11 Made by Snead & Co.'
>
>hmmmm...I wonder if this was the predecessor to the
>PW-5? ;O
>
>www.pointvista.com/WW2GliderPilots
>
>also has some neat stuff. Glider pilot humor, too...
>

Any one interested should look at

http://www.britishpathe.com

A search on gliders, gliding or army gliding produces
some interesting flim of the glding and army gliding,
both US and UK during WW11s

The shots make our sport look quite tame