B-17 towing the General Airborne Transport XCG-16 1944 ...
Wed May 15, 2013 10:11 am
For those who haven't seen these images before. Interesting and unusual contraption, with some Wiki information below. B-17 is called 'Miss Barbara' with all armament removed for obvious reasons. ... Oxnard area California
Original source (U.S. Air Force photos) and retromechanix.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Ai ... ort_XCG-16
Original source (U.S. Air Force photos) and retromechanix.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Ai ... ort_XCG-16
Last edited by Mark Allen M on Thu May 16, 2013 8:03 am, edited 3 times in total.
Re: B-17 towing the General Airborne Transport XCG-16 1944 .
Wed May 15, 2013 10:34 am
Cool pics. With the mountains in the background, it's not Ohio.
Re: B-17 towing the General Airborne Transport XCG-16 1944 .
Wed May 15, 2013 10:55 am
Maybe?.....
From the link...
" The first 14 photos in the gallery above date from September 21, 1944 and were likely taken at Oxnard Flight Strip in California; this later became Oxnard Air Force Base and is now Camarillo Airport."
http://retromechanix.com/article/transports/general-airborne-transport-xcg-16-military-transport-assault-glider-part-2/
From the link...
" The first 14 photos in the gallery above date from September 21, 1944 and were likely taken at Oxnard Flight Strip in California; this later became Oxnard Air Force Base and is now Camarillo Airport."
http://retromechanix.com/article/transports/general-airborne-transport-xcg-16-military-transport-assault-glider-part-2/
Re: B-17 towing the General Airborne Transport XCG-16 1944 .
Wed May 15, 2013 11:19 am
Super18 wrote:" The first 14 photos in the gallery above date from September 21, 1944 and were likely taken at Oxnard Flight Strip in California; this later became Oxnard Air Force Base and is now Camarillo Airport."
Yes that very well does look like the Oxnard / Camarillo area, which is not far from me actually. according to the link there is a connection with a few images to Ohio so I wasn't too far off with stating Ohio. Oh how I hate to be wrong, unfortunately it happens a lot lol
Like I said, quite the contraption.
http://retromechanix.com/article/transp ... mage-1537/
Re: B-17 towing the General Airborne Transport XCG-16 1944 .
Wed May 15, 2013 7:42 pm
Anyone know the history of the tug? 41-24519 is what it looks like to me? Maybe 518? That would make it an early F and in the same production batch (only 34 units later) as a rather famous early F model that is now undergoing restoration at the NMUSAF
Re: B-17 towing the General Airborne Transport XCG-16 1944 .
Wed May 15, 2013 7:47 pm
Close up nose art pic on ebay all the time.Nice to know the rest of the plane.
Re: B-17 towing the General Airborne Transport XCG-16 1944 .
Wed May 15, 2013 8:45 pm
SaxMan wrote:Anyone know the history of the tug? 41-24519 is what it looks like to me
Yes it's 41-24519, you can also see the #'s under the wing
Re: B-17 towing the General Airborne Transport XCG-16 1944 .
Thu May 16, 2013 9:33 am
Yes, it is 124519, which has the following indication on the record card:
"Vandalia (glider testing) 16/8/43" so the aircraft was officially located in Ohio regardless of where the testing occurred. To date I have not determined a record of disposition for this aircraft.
"Vandalia (glider testing) 16/8/43" so the aircraft was officially located in Ohio regardless of where the testing occurred. To date I have not determined a record of disposition for this aircraft.
Re: B-17 towing the General Airborne Transport XCG-16 1944 .
Sun Jun 09, 2013 4:03 pm
"Vandalia (glider testing) 16/8/43" on the id card.
Is it not strange that a U.S aircraft ID card would use European da/mo/yr format?
Miss Barbara may have been assigned to Vandalia, but Vandalia was not glider test. The XCG-16 was towed to Wright or CCAAF, Wilmington, Ohio by Miss Barbara. Many times that kind of new stuff stopped at Wright Field for check-in and photography. However, by that time, CCAAF had a photog lab and the normal series of 45 degree quadrant photos were made there of the XCG-16.
As mentioned, the mountain background XCG-16 photos are Oxnard. The in-flight photos showing the corn shocks on ground were made over the corn fields near to CCAAF. In addition there are a number of various on-the-ground photos of the XCG-16 at CCAAF.
I am not sure that tugs were actually assigned to CCAAF. Seems they would have been assigned to the glider branch and parked at Wright which is only approximately 35 miles distant. I know that up until he went to England first of Jan 1944 Gen Cardenas flew (C-47 and P-38) from Wright to CCAAF for tug work.
The first if not the only B-17 with glider snatch winch installed was #42-30501. Don't know if she had a name. She could have been assigned to CCAAF for short time. She flew to L-M Fayettevile to do snatches of the XCG-10A in 1944 and was used in 1946 at Greenville, SC to snatch 4A, 13A, 15A and 10A gliders. If any tugs were, for the duration, assigned to CCAAF, likely would have been the C-60, two or three C-47 and the B-23 which they used almost daily.
Until it was chucked as a tug, an A-25 was there. Two different B-24 were there for a while. As well, a C-54, P-47, C-46, B-25, two or three P-38, B-17 #43-37881 did, what I call, short-arm (no winch) tow target snatches. One of the P-59A and a P-51 were there in 1945 for what, I do not know.
On the crash of the MC-1: The pilot of the C-60 tug told me the ballast shifted in the MC-1 because it was not properly lashed down. Richard duPont was trying to sell the glider to Congress via the Commerce Dept. He had a load of CA oranges ready to load in the glider to take them to DC for distribution during a special session of Congress. During lunch the ballast was removed so the oranges could be loaded. After lunch the pilots decided they had time to take another flight before starting for DC. The ballast was hastily placed in the glider and not secured. When Gabel tried to release the glider tow line, the release did not open. The glider lurched up, pulling up the C-60 tail and caused the loose ballast bags to shift aft. At this point the tug pilot said he was looking almost straight down at the ground. The glider nosed down, lurched up again, and down again. On the way down the tow line released and the glider went into a flat spin and Gabel could not recover.
Is it not strange that a U.S aircraft ID card would use European da/mo/yr format?
Miss Barbara may have been assigned to Vandalia, but Vandalia was not glider test. The XCG-16 was towed to Wright or CCAAF, Wilmington, Ohio by Miss Barbara. Many times that kind of new stuff stopped at Wright Field for check-in and photography. However, by that time, CCAAF had a photog lab and the normal series of 45 degree quadrant photos were made there of the XCG-16.
As mentioned, the mountain background XCG-16 photos are Oxnard. The in-flight photos showing the corn shocks on ground were made over the corn fields near to CCAAF. In addition there are a number of various on-the-ground photos of the XCG-16 at CCAAF.
I am not sure that tugs were actually assigned to CCAAF. Seems they would have been assigned to the glider branch and parked at Wright which is only approximately 35 miles distant. I know that up until he went to England first of Jan 1944 Gen Cardenas flew (C-47 and P-38) from Wright to CCAAF for tug work.
The first if not the only B-17 with glider snatch winch installed was #42-30501. Don't know if she had a name. She could have been assigned to CCAAF for short time. She flew to L-M Fayettevile to do snatches of the XCG-10A in 1944 and was used in 1946 at Greenville, SC to snatch 4A, 13A, 15A and 10A gliders. If any tugs were, for the duration, assigned to CCAAF, likely would have been the C-60, two or three C-47 and the B-23 which they used almost daily.
Until it was chucked as a tug, an A-25 was there. Two different B-24 were there for a while. As well, a C-54, P-47, C-46, B-25, two or three P-38, B-17 #43-37881 did, what I call, short-arm (no winch) tow target snatches. One of the P-59A and a P-51 were there in 1945 for what, I do not know.
On the crash of the MC-1: The pilot of the C-60 tug told me the ballast shifted in the MC-1 because it was not properly lashed down. Richard duPont was trying to sell the glider to Congress via the Commerce Dept. He had a load of CA oranges ready to load in the glider to take them to DC for distribution during a special session of Congress. During lunch the ballast was removed so the oranges could be loaded. After lunch the pilots decided they had time to take another flight before starting for DC. The ballast was hastily placed in the glider and not secured. When Gabel tried to release the glider tow line, the release did not open. The glider lurched up, pulling up the C-60 tail and caused the loose ballast bags to shift aft. At this point the tug pilot said he was looking almost straight down at the ground. The glider nosed down, lurched up again, and down again. On the way down the tow line released and the glider went into a flat spin and Gabel could not recover.