We found this very interesting. It appears to be a jeep in a crate, well it's not. It's actually a glider, it was built of wood slats covered with fabric. The two pilots sat in small chairs in the front that almost looked like lawn chairs.


United States Army, Army Air Forces, and Air Force
Major General Henry "Hap" Arnold, Acting Deputy Chief of Staff for Air (becoming Commanding General of the United States Army Air Forces on March 9, 1942), initiated a study with view to develop a glider capable of being towed by aircraft. This directive was set into motion through Classified Technical Instructions (CTI-198 on 24 February 1941, and CTI-203 on 4 March 1941), which authorized the procurement of 2-, 8-, and 15-place gliders and equipment. Eleven companies were invited to participate in the experimental glider program, but only four responded with any interest, Frankfort Sailplane Company (XCG-1, XCG-2), Waco Aircraft Company (XCG-3, XCG-4), St. Louis Aircraft Corp. (XCG-5, XCG-6), and Bowlus Sailplanes (XCG-7, XCG-8). Only Waco Aircraft Company was able to deliver the experimental glider prototypes that satisfied the requirements of Materiel Command, the eight-seat Waco CG-3 (modified to become a production nine-seat glider) and the fifteen-seat Waco CG-4. In October 1941, Lewin B. Barringer was made Glider Specialist, Air Staff, HQ of the Army Air Forces, answering to General Arnold, and placed in charge of the glider program. The shock of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 prompted the United States to set the number of glider pilots needed at 1,000 to fly 500 eight-seat gliders and 500 fifteen-seat gliders. The number of pilots required was increased to 6,000 by June 1942.[2] After Barringer was lost at sea on a flight to Africa in January 1943, the program came under direction of Richard C. du Pont.[4] Bigger gliders, such as the 30-troop Waco CG-13A and the 42-troop Laister-Kauffman CG-10A were designed later.[5]

The most widely used type was the Waco CG-4A, which was first used in the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 and participated in the D-Day assault on France on 6 June 1944, and in other important airborne operations in Europe, including Operation Market Garden in September 1944 and the crossing the Rhine in March 1945, and in the China-Burma-India Theater. The CG-4A was constructed of a metal and wood frame covered with fabric, manned by a crew of two and with an allowable normal cargo load of 3,710 lb,[2] allowing it to carry 13 combat-equipped troops or a jeep or small artillery piece. The CG-10 could hold 10,850 lb of cargo, such as two howitzers, at a time.[2] The final glider mission of the war was at Luzon on 23 June 1945. By the end of the war, the United States had built 14,612 gliders of all types and had trained over 6,000 glider pilots. The designs of the Waco Aircraft Company were also produced by a wide variety of manufacturers including Ford Motor Company and Cessna Aircraft Company as well as furniture, piano and coffin manufacturers.[2][6]

Following World War II, the United States maintained only one regiment of gliders. Gliders were used in military exercises in 1949, but glider operations were deleted from the United States Army′s capabilities on 1 January 1953.[2] However, the United States Air Force continues to use sailplanes at the United States Air Force Academy to train cadets in the fundamentals of flight.[7]

United States Navy and Marine Corps
In April 1941, United States Navy officer Marc Mitscher proposed that the Navy develop amphibious gliders with flying-boat hulls with a goal of deploying an amphibious glider force capable of delivering an entire United States Marine Corps brigade of 715 men to a hostile beachhead, the gliders to be towed by Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina amphibian aircraft. The Navy′s Bureau of Aeronautics developed specifications for two types of amphibious glider, a single-hulled type which could carry 12 passengers and a twin-hulled type that could carry 24 passengers. Two companies, the Allied Aviation Corporation and the Bristol Aeronautical Corporation, received contracts to produce 100 gliders, and plans called for the procurement of 12,000 more amphibious gliders if the concept proved successful.[8]

No twin-hulled glider was built, but each company constructed the prototype of a single-hulled amphibious glider, the XLRA-1 by Allied Aviation and the XLRQ-1 by Bristol Aeronautical. The two prototypes made their first flights in early 1943, but by the time they did the Navy and Marine Corps already had concluded that the use of gliders to deliver Marines to beachheads was impractical. No further examples of the two glider types were built, and the Navy officially terminated the amphibious glider program on 27 September 1943. Testing of the two prototypes continued until early December 1943, apparently in connection with the development of a glider bomb.[8]

The Marine Corps established a glider training unit in early 1942 at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina, using non-amphibious Pratt-Read LNE-1 and Schweizer LNS-1 gliders. In addition, the Navy took delivery during World War II of 15 U.S. Army Air Forces Waco CG-4A non-amphibious gliders for evaluation under the Navy designation LRW-1. Neither of these initiatives resulted in operational use of gliders by the U.S. Navy or Marine Corps.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_glider

My grandfather was a Glider Pilot. That is him in the cockpit (top left) D day. The co pilot shown was later killed by machine gun fire trying to land in Operation Varsity (Rhine Crossing). They went through training together and were side by side for much of the war. The Gliders were the modern day helicopter pilots in that they carried troops and equipment to the front lines. Once they crashed, and that was the only way to land, they had to find their way back to friendly confines, often alone for days or even weeks. He said they would hide out in vineyards, barns, whatever to avoid detection. He flew 6 mission and as far as I can tell no one flew any more and lived to tell about it.
There is a Glider Pilot museum in Lubbock, Texas that is on my bucket list. I have all of his medals, log book, journals, and tons of pics, some that I shared here on occasion, and lots of other War related stuff that I’d like to donate to the museum. They wore a G on their pilots wings and said the “ G stands for Guts”. A different breed for sure.

Very cool

Thanks for posting perch..thats awesome pic and story rarebreed

Definitely was the greatest generation of americans.

It is almost amazing how the country came together in WWII to build and design military type stuff to defeat the Germans and Japanese. It seems these days the military would be fighting people in the United States rather than getting help.

Timber, Americans were "ALL IN". They had food rationing as well as gas and other items. There were drives where they collected old tires, bottles, about anything that could contribute to the war effort. Folks bought WAR BONDS, yes America was fighting for the safety of the World, and we should all be proud of the way our forefathers came together and defeated tyranny. Now we have that same mental illness at work in this Country, much of it in the Democratic Party.

Way cool presentation,,,,

This is fascinating. My grandfather was at Pearl Harbor, so I soak up WWII history. Thank you!

Here is a newspaper clipping from ‘43 selling the variability of the Glider program.



Back at Membury Airbase in England after D Day invasion. Maybe the best cup of coffee my grandfather ever sipped. He looks exhausted but happy to be alive.

nj

This last pic I finally figured out the writing on the Glider. It’s upside down.
It reads: Gephart Furniture Co. We deliver anywhere, anytime for FREE.
Gephart was also killed in Operation Varsity.

Cool!

Flying cardboard deathtraps.

They were a cheap, expedient way to get a lot of troops on the ground, unfortunately quite a few died just trying to get on the ground. Of course like someone else mentioned helicopters were still a thing of the future at the time and in order to win a war the leaders have to do what they have to do and unfortunately troops become statistics that are expendable to a certain degree.

It's a good thing that they are a thing of the past as far as troop deployment, like marching across an open field in formation toward an enemy. We learn things from fighting a war and we need to continually apply those lessons.

I never knew we even had gliders until I watched “Saving Private Ryan.”