::corngrowth

gallery

I like to show you another piece of avionic history.

Depicted is an American military Training Glider, type 32 (TG-32), with the designation LNE-1, assembled for the US Navy/Marine Corps in 1943 by the Gould Aeronautical Division of the Pratt, Read & company, Deep River Connecticut, USA. The Pratt-Read glider is a two-seat monoplane glider having a fabric-covered steel tube fuselage and wooden wings and tail.

When the US Navy began to question the effectiveness of a glider assault in the Pacific theater, the original order for 100 LNE-1 gliders was amended and reduced to 75. The short lived Marine glider program was cancelled however before any LNE-1's were ever delivered to the unit.

When the decision was made not to use gliders in the Pacific campaign, 73 of the Navy aircraft were transferred to the United States Army Air Forces. The Air Force however did not use the gliders and they were stored until the end of the war and were sold on the civilian market. That's why this one (with serial number 31521) in 2015 still is flying. Image was taken near Zeeland Airport, The Netherlands.

PS: for further details, please check-out this link.