"Armstrong Tires" CG-4A Glider

[Lightninglover]

Way back in the late 60s or early 70s I remember travelling through Fresno, California and looking up at a Tire Store and saying " I'll be damned, that's a Waco Glider!".

Years later I was there again and the glider was gone. I often wondered what happened to it. Turns out it was purchased by the "Silent Wings Foundation" and was restored. It now is the centerpiece at the Silent Wings Museum in Lubbock, Texas.

I was sure glad she was not scrapped and is where she belongs.

[ALOHADAVE]

I'm glad it was saved too
The weather would have not been kind to the mostly wood glider

[marine air]

Is that the nicest most complete CG-4A? It looks like it was all there when parked on the roof. Most of ther ones I've seen have been retrieved from the woods and are just corroded tubing.

[ALOHADAVE]

Id say the Fighting Falcon Glider Museum in Greenville, Michigan has a very good complete restoration.

[Chris Brame]

By the 1970s, it didn't look nearly that good - most of the fabric was gone; there was a photo of it in Air Classics around '74-'75. Good to know it was rescued. The same issue showed some other glider remains in a nearby lot; CG-13s I think?

[gliderman1]

Armstrong Tire CG-4A:
take a hard look at the starboard wing and note that it is a bit short. There must have been a problem with letting the full wing overhang the property next door to the tire shop. The wwII Glider pilots association finally talked Mrs. Armstrong into selling the skeleton. It was rebuilt and displayed for years at the museum in Terrell, TX. It moved to Lubbock when the NWW2GPA, Inc turned the museum over to the City of Lubbock. Ownership of the gliders did not pass from the Association to the City until a couple years ago.

Definition of complete glider, or what can be omitted and still be complete? Wings? Fabric? Interior cockpit details? Silent Wings Museum; Kzoo Air Zoo; NMUSAF; Iron Mountain Military Museum; Special Ops Fayetteville; NIM Cols, GA; Ste Mere Iglise(SP) all display complete with wings and fabric. A couple others have wings built but not enough space to display the full glider. Those on display generally represent the features of 1945 contract articles which never left the continent as opposed to 1942-44 production of which are most combat photo gliders until Varsity. NONE are displayed with the original, 1942-43 production, SCR-585 Handie-Talkie radio systems.

[garbs]

Saw this one at Fagen Fighters back in 2014:

[bdk]

Yanks in Chino has one under long-term restoration. The fuselage is mostly done though not covered (last I saw it).

[marine air]

I first saw the Yanks example in 1980. Thirty six years later it looks exactly the same. It needs to be reclassified from restoration to storage. The Helldiver needs to also be put in the "storage" classification.

[JohnB]

In one of his columns in Flying magazine in the 70s, Gordon Baxter mentioned several glider frames at a airfield in the south (Tennessee, IIRC). I can't recall the airfield but I think it was the same one which had the Brewster Bermudas.

No idea what happened to the WACKos.

[bdk]

I first saw the Yanks example in 1980. Thirty six years later it looks exactly the same. It needs to be reclassified from restoration to storage. The Helldiver needs to also be put in the "storage" classification.

Helldiver has a new engine installed AFAIK and some other work has been done.

2nd Hellcat has really come together over the last few years.

Ohka has been done for a while.

They have a crew of at least 4 or 5 working full time on restorations.

[Steve Nelson]

The Airborne Special & Operations Museum in Fayetteville, NC has a nicely restored example, displayed with the various types of equipment it could carry. I took these pics in 2012.

SN