the colditz castle / pow camp glider, could it fly??

[tom d. friedman]

the intrepid ingenious p.o.w.s of the notorious colditz castle p.o.w. camp built a glider to build / launch a home made glider under the nose of the germans at the top of the castle with what ever wood or fasteners they could lay their hands on. i've seen rough plans to accomodate 2 people to be launched via home made catapult with sand or dirt weight as launch weight. i've seen 2 movies on the topic. could it have flown?? to bad it wasn't saved for posterity.

[blurrkup]

It has been proved it can fly. A full scale replica was built for a channel 4 (UK) documentary. The program was called Escape from Colditz. It was shown in the US as Nazi Prison Escape.

[Pathfinder]

The documentary regarding the glider ran in the NOVA format on US PBS about 3-4 years ago. As I recall it was in the same program grouping as the excavations to find the tunnel entrances at Luft III.

If I recall correctly, two of the three members of the glider-build team were present when the historians launched and flew their replica. They were also visibly elated to see the thing go up (it was launched from the ground with a car tow) and actually fly.

An excellent telling of an historical event.

[Dan K]

Behold...The Colditz Cock

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_9vosTr3r4m4/T ... glider.jpg


And some youtube of the recent flight test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cTcyXKWRys&feature=fvst

[tom d. friedman]

wow that video of the repro did that story justice!!

[TJJ]

I was lucky enough to meet Bill Goldfinch - the designer of the glider - back in July 2002. A friend and I had flown from North Weald to Exeter and Dunkeswell and stopped off at Old Sarum (near Salisbury) for some tea on the way back. We had a wander around the WW1 hangars and spoke to an old guy who was working on a homebuilt amphibian. We must have spent around 45 minutes chatting to him.

When Bill died in 2007, I saw his obituary and realised this was who we had meet those years before. By then he had almost finished the aircraft and it was due to have a taxi trial the day after he died. He was 91.

[shrike]

The airplane in the video looks like a Grunau Baby, of which several thousand have been built either in factories or (more)by groups of amateurs. Plans were widely distributed throughout Germany before the war. I wonder how much of it was adapted.
Also, the descriptions has it a two place glider, but it looks awful tight for one.

[Baldeagle]

Wiki page with photo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colditz_Cock




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[the330thbg]

read their story years and years ago and also caught the NOVA special a while back. Very, very cool!!!! Alsways thought that was 'movie' worthy.., they could just change the ending a tad!

[tom d. friedman]

good for a laugh....... i saw the doug mclure colditz movie in mexico city in the 70's as a teen, & it was in spanish w/ yankee subtitles!! would love to catch the english version!! that movie is probably dust by now with mclure being a b- movie grade actor. i thought it was good though, even as the subtitles wizzed across the screen real fast. no tequila / weed involved as i was just a wittle boy then!!

[M.P.]

There is just another replica finished, build by a museum group at Altenburg in Germany. This may will be test flown before going to permanent display at the Colditz Castle:

http://www.bild.de/regional/leipzig/gef ... .bild.html

http://www.aceshighapps.com/

[shrike]

OK, that explains the second seat

[Tiger Tim]

Pushrod controls? Box spars? Lightening holes everywhere? Plywood skinning? Clearly these guys were in no hurry to escape...

-Tim

[the330thbg]

Clearly these guys were in no hurry to escape...

-Tim

Agreed. They state, very often, it was to keep them busy!