This is the place where the majority of the warbird (aircraft that have survived military service) discussions will take place. Specialized forums may be added in the new future
Sat Jul 28, 2012 6:15 pm
I'm currently reading Flint Whitlock's book "If Chaos Reigns" all about the Airborne forces on D-Day. The book is a good read and I recommend it. Mr Whitlock mentions that almost 14,000 Waco CG-4A's were built by various companies during the war. That's one heck of alot of gliders. I really had no idea so many were built. My question is where are the survivors today. I know of the one at the NMUSAF, at the AirZoo in Michigan and the one at the Utah Beach Museum in Normandy. Are there any more?
ay
Sat Jul 28, 2012 6:58 pm
Restoration underway:
http://www.thefightingfalcon.org/Display:
http://www.silentwingsmuseum.com/http://www.asomf.org/pages/main_exhibits.phphttp://amcmuseum.org/exhibits_and_planes/cg-4.phphttp://www.soaringmuseum.org/Wikipedia listing:Maybe inaccurate?
Surviving aircraft
Cockpit of CG-4A at the Silent Wings MuseumU.S. Army Airborne & Special Operations Museum, Fayetteville, North Carolina
The Fighting Falcon Museum, Greenville MI[11]
Kalamazoo Air Zoo, Kalamazoo, Michigan
National Museum of the United States Air Force
National Infantry Museum, Fort Benning, Columbus, Georgia
82nd Airborne Division War Memorial Museum, Fort Bragg, Fayetteville, North Carolina
Air Mobility Command Museum
Carolinas Aviation Museum, Charlotte, North Carolina
National Soaring Museum
Musée Airborne
Silent Wings Museum, Lubbock, Texas
Museum of Army Flying, Middle Wallop, United Kingdom
Don F. Pratt Memorial Museum, Fort Campbell, Kentucky
Airborne D-Day Museum, St. Mere Eglise, Normandy, France
Cradle of Aviation Museum, Long Island, New York
Yanks Air Museum, Chino, California
Museum bevrijdende vleugels, Best, the Netherlands[12][13][14]
Sat Jul 28, 2012 7:34 pm
The Greatest Generation Aircraft crew (B-25 "Pacific Prowler", B-26K "Special Kay", and C-49J "Southern Cross") are restoring a CG-4A to flying condition. The cockpit section is completed and on display in the VFM hangar.
Sat Jul 28, 2012 7:35 pm
Most of them were sold surplus, in their shipping crates for minimal cost per unit, like $5.00 per crate one with fuselage and the other with the wings and tail surfaces, to farmers who took the gliders out of the crates, turned the crates into sheds and dragged the, to them (and 99 people out of 100 others)worthless gliders out in the fields to go back to nature.
There was just a fairly long thread on this revolving around an outfit that wanted to use surplus CG-4s as freighters post war.
Sat Jul 28, 2012 8:04 pm
I believe the Fighting Falcon Museum CG-4 is just a fuselage. That's all I've ever seen pictures of anyway, unless they're restoring the rest elsewhere.
Sat Jul 28, 2012 10:26 pm
The Fighting Falcon museum is a separate entity from the Air Zoo. As Kzookid says, I think they just have a fuselage. I think their project may be based on some leftovers from the Kalamazoo restoration (I seem to remember the Air Zoo ended up with an extra fuselage frame and some other bits) but I may be wrong. The Yankee Air Museum was restoring a CG-4A, but it was unfortunately lost in the fire of 2004.
SN
Sun Jul 29, 2012 12:08 am
I remember seeing one at Whiteman AFB that was being restored a couple of years ago. Not sure what the status of it since the only time the general public gets to see it is during the airshow. Whiteman use to be a training base for the gliders.
Mon Jul 30, 2012 4:40 pm
CG-4A glider restorations:
FR is Fully Restored with wings.
PR is Partially Restored with full fuselage w/o wings.
N is Nose/cockpit only.
FRP is Full Restoration in Progress
This material is collected, compiled and is the copyright of Leon B. Spencer and Charles L. Day. It is not to be used for any type re-publication or copy to any other internet web site without written permission.
FR CG-4A at Menominee Range Historical Foundation Military Museum, Iron Mountain, MI. Similar to the CG-4A frame at the Warhawk Museum, this nose and cargo section had been converted to a travel trailer. Fully restored and fully covered, with wings, complete.
FR CG-4A glider at the Silent Wings Museum at Lubbock, TX. It was previously at the museum at Terrell, TX. Museum also has finished CG-4A nose, CG-4A nose frame which at one time was mounted with an autopilot.. TG-4 and a finished Horsa cockpit also are displayed.
FR CG-4A glider is on display at The Airborne and Special Operations Museum in downtown Fayetteville, NC. This is an excellent display with Jeep exiting the glider. One of the two Leniar restorations under Army contract.
FR CG-4A glider at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force on Old Wright Field, Dayton, OH. This is an original 1945 article built by Gibson Refrigerator, Greenville, MI delivered middle of 1945. Deteriorated and refinished it is hanging above a C-47 and is difficult to view.
FR CG-4A cargo glider at National Infantry Museum and Soldier Center, at Fort Benning, GA Hanging in dark, very difficult to view. One of the two Leniar restorations under Army contract.
FR CG-4A cargo glider at the Airborne Troops Museum in Ste Mère Eglise, Normandy France. This glider was built by L-K, deteriorated, was rebuilt and is not 100% authentic.
FR FF CG-4A cargo glider, One of three restorations bearing the name, The Fighting Falcon, at the Air Zoo, Portage (Kalamazoo), MI. Represents one of Fighting Falcons.
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PR FF CG-4A glider, The Fighting Falcon, at the 101st A/B Don F. Pratt Memorial Museum at Fort Campbell, KY. Displayed with the Screaming Eagle and Fighting Falcon fabric from the Flag Ship, lead glider of the Chicago mission June 6, 1944. Posing as the Fighting Falcon, it is one of three gliders representing one of the two Fighting Falcons that flew the Chicago mission 6 June 1944..
PR FF CG-4A cargo glider bearing the name, The Fighting Falcon, displayed at the Fighting Falcon Military Museum in Greenville, MI. Represents one of the Gibson Girls. No wings, one side not covered.
PR CG-4A cargo glider at the Cradle of Aviation Museum at old Mitchell Field in Garden City, NY. No wings, one side Lucite covered, “open” showing trooper dummies or dummy troopers riding. Touts the General Aircraft Company (GE) and Dade Company as primary contractors despite Dad not being a primary contractor. Ignores the Stienway Company that built the wood components for GE and rented warehouse space to GE for glider assembly.
PR CG-4A is on display in Hayward Hall at the Museum of Army Flying at Middle Wallop, Stockbridge, Hampshire, UK. Wing stub(s), displayed in combat landing situation.
PR CG-4A restoration/replica constructed and assembled using an actual CG-4A frame is on display at the Yorkshire Air Museum in Elvington, York, UK. No wings.
PR CG-4A cargo glider is being partially restored by the Yankee Air Force-Wurtsmith Division in Michigan at the former Wurtsmith Air Force base. Cockpit-cargo sections.
*****
FRP CG-4A being fully restored at Yank’s Air Museum in Chino, CA from parts of three CG-4A gliders. They have the serial numbers and all were originally built by Northwestern Aeronautical. This will be a fully restored article when completed.
FRP CG-4A restored by American Aviation Heritage Foundation of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN at Villaume Industries, Inc. the company that originally built the wood components for Northwestern Aeronautical Company. This glider is now at the Fagen Museum at Granite City, MN. It has wings but is covered only on one side. They are also rebuilding a CG-15A cockpit.
FRP Whiteman Heritage Foundation of Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, is restoring a World War II CG-4A troop/cargo glider to be displayed at the base.
FRP CG-4A cargo/troop glider is being restored by the Assault Glider Trust (AGT) in a hangar at RAF Shawbury, Shropshire UK. This will be a full restoration along with their Dakota, Tiger Moth and Horsa full restorations.
FRP CG-4A cargo glider had been being partially restored at the Yankee Air Museum at Willow Run Airport - Belleville, Michigan. The fuselage was on display, sans wings. Destroyed by the fire.
*****
N nose section, Serial No. 45-14647, is on display at the Pima Air and Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona. Carries a Laister-Kauffmann ID plate, but the known frame serial number is a Commonwealth contract serial number.
N restored Waco CG-4A nose section is on display in Hangar 1301 of the Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware
N Travis Air Museum, Travis AFB, California 94535, posing as a Waco CG-4A is a reworked nose section of a Waco CG-15A. The interior has also been modified and does not authentically simulate either the CG-4A or the CG-15A.
N partially restored nose section only of a Waco CG-4A cargo glider is on display in new Hanger 3 at the Museum of Aviation at Warner Robins Air Force Base, Warner Robins,
N CG-4A glider cockpit section is on display at the Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum in Columbus, Indiana
N CG-4A nose and cargo section displayed at the National Soaring Museum at Elmira, NY. This appears to be a mock-up or replica rather than an actual frame reconstruction.
*****
Other projects not classified as FR, PR, FRP or N:
CG-4A nose and cargo section frame had been converted to travel trailer, found behind barn near Nampa; on display at Warhawk Air Museum, Nampa, Idaho. Restoration not intended.
CG-4A restoration is indicated at the WACO Museum, Troy, OH but no progress is reported and the frame is not on display.
CG-4A mockup-replica at World War II Museum in New Orleans< LA shown wrecked at a stone wall with a jeep emerging from the nose. Some of the components are not authentic.
CG-4A restoration to flyable condition by Greatest Generation Aircraft, Fort Worth, TX. This organization has the partially restored cockpit frame and other parts of what was known as the John Pappas project. They intend to restore the glider to flyable condition (2012).
CG-4A replica in a diorama at the American Airpower Heritage Museum, at Commemorative Air Force (CAF) Headquarters (formerly the Confederate Air Force) in Midland, Texas
CG-4A fuselage, restored is on display in La Motte/Le Muy, France. No other information or confirmation on this glider.
CG-4A nose section at The National Museum of Flight, East Fortune Airfield, East Lothian, Scotland.
CG-4A parts The Broken Wings Museum in Erembodegem, Belgium. Restoration and display in a wrecked condition as it might be found on the battlefield is planned. Last information was the restoration work is on hold.
CG-4A nose and partial cargo section airframe recovered from a farmer’s field near Kirby Lonsdale, UK, in possession of the Cumbria Military Museum which has plans to restore the nose and cargo section.
CG-4A D. B. Collins, a former glider pilot from Ashville, Ohio, is helping an Ohio military museum collect parts for a tail section of a CG-4A to represent a “crash scene” in front of the museum. Recent confirmation not available.
CG-4A replica cargo glider displayed at Wings of Liberation Museum Park in Best, Netherlands.
CG-15A nose and cargo section at the 82nd Airborne Division Museum on Fort Bragg, NC. This is in original, un-restored condition. It was used in the rigid tow bar experiments post war and still has part of the universal joint cover on the nose and test instruments inside. It is the first CG-15A produced by WACO and was flown to Ft. Bragg. Location of the wings and tail is unknown.
CG-15A planned restoration at Kentucky Aviation Historical Society. As late as October 2009 the only part of a CG-15A they have on hand is the cargo section.
CG-15A nose/cockpit being rebuilt by American Aviation Heritage Foundation of Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN at Villaume Industries, Inc.
There are several CG-4A and CG-15A frames of various conditions in the hands of private collectors.
Text Copyright by Leon Spencer and Charles Day.
Mon Jul 30, 2012 6:59 pm
Which one was on display outside during the EAA convention some years ago? Maybe 20? I think they had a tribute to WW2 glider pilots there.
Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:26 am
Oshkosh 1994, Normandy 50th Anniversary, unfinished Kzoo glider displayed, 20 glider pilots attended, 6 of them living today.
Tue Jul 31, 2012 9:44 am
unless i glossed over the above list to quickly, there was a a cg -4 restoration or parts in milan ohio 15 minutes west of me. this was a bee that i learned of in the late 90's. i called the phone number, it's still listed. waiting for reply.
Wed Aug 01, 2012 10:41 am
Tom D.,
Have you found any information on the Milan, OH CG-4A?
Who, where, how much of it, stage of restoration, any museum connection?
Here is one to stir up things up. I mention because you and Milan, OH might be considered NW Ohio.
By middle of 1944 we (USAAF) had a German Gotha 242 at Clinton County Glider Test base Wilmington, Ohio. All the stuff there was moved, Nov 1945, for storage, to Freeman Field in Indiana, In 1946 (July or whenever) Floyd Sweet and crew of three flew that glider to Harris Hill (Horseheads) for exhibit at the National Soaring Meet. At the time, Floyd was head of the Glider Branch at Wright Field. They flew to Freeman (from Wright) to get the glider, towed the glider to Wright (there ia a Dayton newspaper story and picture, made at Wright Field), then to Elmira. The newspaper story was about this big German glider being flown over the U.S. for the first time -- totally ignoring that the glider had been flown all over SW Ohio for two years prior. Several years ago Floyd told me he understood that glider was in storage in a barn in NW Ohio, but that was all he ever heard about it. If true, what a find that would be!!