Maj. Richard C. du Pont -- Anniversary of his death

[Gregory]

Maj. Richard C. du Pont -- Anniversary of his death

9/11 glider tragedy, 1943

 

When first Director of the US Army's American Glider Program Maj. Lewin B. Barringer lost his life in transport plane accident Maj. Richard C. du Pont was made a Special Assistant to General "Hap" Arnold as a chief the AGP. He managed the AGP very shortly however. On September 11, 1943, at March Air Field in California, Richard du Pont was killed when the experimental XCG-16 cargo glider in which he was a passenger crashed during a demonstration flight.

[Gregory]

And small addition from my collection. The glider that can be seen in the article is the Bowlus-du Pont 1-S-2100 Senior Albatross Falcon.

[gliderman1]

Gregory,

I am pretty sure richard duPont was not a Major. He served as a civlian. I have never seen a photo of him in uniform.

 

The glider he was killed in was the MC-1 which was not under Army contract at the time of the crash and was pyisically different from the XCG-16. On this point, duPont had assigned an Army officer, factory reprersentative, to the factory during completion of the MC-1 and as a result the Army, after duPont was killed, paid for the MC-1 based on that assignment and the glider as being a directive of duPont's. The Freeman article is a bit askew on this. As well, they are off on the XCG-7 and XCG-8 in that the 8 was destroyed in a wind storm in July 1943 and the 7 was used, post war, in lighting storm tests.