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From: pyuxf!jem3@bellcore.bellcore.com (John E McKillop)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Airborne operations
Message-ID: <1990Jul18.040653.13798@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 18 Jul 90 04:06:53 GMT
References: <1990Jul3.031911.6890@cbnews.att.com> <1990Jul5.020524.14311@cbnews.att.com> <1990Jul6.032749.27741@cbnews.att.com>
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From: pyuxf!jem3@bellcore.bellcore.com (John E McKillop)

In article <1990Jul6.032749.27741@cbnews.att.com> bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante) writes:
>
>
>From: bobmon@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu (RAMontante)
>A long long time ago (in a galaxy far far away...) I read a book on the
>DC-3/C-47, which mentioned that some C-47 fuselages were equipped as
>gliders.  Basically Douglas left the engines out and capped off the
>nacelles.  One of these could be towed by a standard C-47.  Perhaps a
>few of these were used on D-Day, or shortly afterwards.

I believe there was an experiment during WWII with one Gooney Bird
where the engines were removed and the aircraft was towed. The
USAAF realized that it was cheaper to build wood and canvas Waco
CG-5's than to use the heavier, more valuable C-47/C-53 so the
project came to nil. The CG-5 was the most used US glider in WWII
with hundreds being used at Normandy, Market Garden, etc. These
gliders rapidly disappeared after the war althouth the USAAF/USAF
did experiment with a metal glider built by Stroukoff of West
Trenton, NJ. Nothing came of that either.

I know there is a CG-5 at the USAF Museum at Wright-Pat and I
believe there is one at the Airborne Museum in Kentucky.