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CG4A Glider Parachute


Nailbender
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PS., Greg, glider flights landing on airfields such as in your images likely would not have used the deceleration chute even if equipped. There was plenty of space for a normal landing which would not require deceleration chute use. Had they been used, it would have been only for training the drivers in the use of the chute as it would have no training value for the riders.

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  • 10 years later...

I have downloaded the above mentioned manual but have not read it thoroughly since my Waco has not yet arrived, but...  found this excerpt on this website:

https://johnmtaylor.com/MissingSticks/wacos.htm

 

Extracted from: Development and Use of the Waco CG-4A Cargo Glider Deceleration Parachute, Compiled by Charles L. Day and Leon B. Spencer Edited by William T. Milanovits and Marion "Smokey" Miller

 

"One of the biggest problems facing the architects of the USMF World War II Glider Program was finding a means of safely landing and stopping a fully-loaded and frequently overloaded CG-4A glider in some of the small fields of occupied Europe. ......

 

"...In June 1944, shortly after the D-Day landings in Normandy, France, several photographs crossed Milanovits' desk showing gliders on the ground in Normandy with decelerations chutes deployed. This was his first indication that the CG-4A deceleration parachute he had worked on had been used in combat. He was pleased that it had worked as intended. He did not think about this project again until fifty-five years later when he attended the 29th annual National WWII Glider Pilot Association Reunion in St. Louis, Missouri, in October 1999. At the reunion he talked to a number of glider pilots about his involvement in the deceleration parachute project, and was warmly welcomed by the officers and other attendees of the association. He was then deluged with questions about the project..."

 

 © 2000-2020 J. M. Taylor
Email: [email protected]

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  • 3 weeks later...

This is an interesting thread. A Hobbie of mine is looking for military aircraft crash sites here in Calif. If you look at the AAIR list of WW2 state side mishaps you will see a number of CG4A mishaps out of VAAB. Victorville Army Air Base is a high desert location. When the weather gets hot the air gets thin. I never understood why they would train in that environment. That program only lasted a short time in 43. The photo is from an album I bought last month. That drop was in Ital

20230123_140744.jpg

20230123_140752.jpg

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  • 4 months later...

Here are my pix of finally opening my original, sealed-as-shipped glider deceleration chute yesterday, and last pic shows it in my Airborne display cabinet, with as much of the original shipping box and wrapping as I could fit in (all the rest of the packing is carefully put away.

 

I've finally realized that to close the pack as mounted on the glider's tail, I need to pull out the risers, as in last photo  (not mine).

 

 

6. FRONT AND TOP WITH LABEL.jpeg

5.jpeg

8 ORIGINAL SHIPPING INFO ON TOP.jpeg

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IMG_0191.JPG

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2023-07-09 DECELERATION CHUTE AND DROP LIGHTS.JPG

PARACHUTE PACK.jpg

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