On Dec 8, 12:40*pm, Bob Whelan wrote:
Mike the Strike wrote:
Several of our members have recently been surveying possible landing
strips for our contest database and Steve Koerner came across an old
crashed glider in the Arizona desert.....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/3676667...7622824263137/

Registration was N71JR.

V-tail, large flaps, no spoilers. *Our best guess so far is some sort
of HP, but the glider construction seems to have been more composite
than aluminum, so this may be off-base.

Suggestions and speculation welcome!

Mike

Assuming this isn't a digital hoax, the only reasonable conclusion is
this was a drug smuggling prototype on a test run.

These guys are no dummies...hence the use of an abandoned N-number, big
flaps for obstructed-approach, short-field landings, outsized nose vent
for hot-country cooling/quick payload dispersal on the off-chance of
interception, and the choice of landing spot.

That noted, I have no clue what this may once have been. If only planes
could talk...

Intriguing find!

Bob W.

Nothing to add except the Creosote (Grease Wood) bushes that appear to
have grown up around it are extremely slow growing. They are
considered by some to be the oldest living things on the planet. It's
easy to believe it's been there over 40 years.

In the early 1960's there were only a few hundred gliders in the US.
It should be possible to find a historical reference to it.