CG4A Glider Nose Section Restoration Project
(click on photos for full size
viewing)
A restored WWII CG-4A Glider Nose
Section is on the museum
gallery floor for display. The window covers for
painting are still on in the first two photos. CG4A Glider parts are very rare and the museum is
fortunate to have this restored artifact for the public to enjoy. Note the 1/6th
scale CG4A Glider hanging above the nose project.
Do you have any CG-4A memorabilia,
parts, manuals or photos to share with our museum?
The CG4A Glider Nose restoration
project calls for lots of pulleys to be installed in the cockpit area. The
museum purchased the correct stock items from an aircraft parts supplier for the installation of the three sizes of pulleys and
cable. The original pulleys were in bad shape so the same stock number is
available today. They also fit DC-3's.
The CG4A Glider Project before the painting phase. The blue windows on the glider photo on the right is not the
color of the windows. It is sheets of plastic covering to protect the Plexiglas
during restoration and painting. In the photo on the right, Museum Volunteer and
Glider Project Coordinator, John Walter points out the workings of the
Plexiglas heat box for glider window production to Harry McCawley
of the Republic Newspaper and friend of the museum. Harry has written
many articles about the museum over the years.
Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum
Volunteers, Bruce Dalton, WWII Glider Pilot and George Budd, WWII
Navy Veteran, inspect the C-G4A Glider in the Silent Wings Museum
in Lubbock, Texas.
Thanks to Glen Russo of Clifton,
New Jersey for his donation of CG-4A Glider parts. Glen donated
bench seats, escape hatch, jump seat and seats backs from a CG4A Glider.
The artifacts were found in the attic of a farm house in the Pocono Mountains in
Pennsylvania. These artifacts are now on display at the Atterbury-Bakalar Air
Museum thanks to Glen. You can see how glider bench seats and backs
were used in the glider in the photograph above.
Click on photographs for full size
CG4A Glider nose section in the museum workshop.
Museum Director, Bob Henry working on the CG4A nose
section and a fully restored CG4A Glider parked under the Columbus Airport
Control Tower during a visit to Columbus. When completed the glider nose section
should appear as on the fully restored glider and in this interior photo.
click on to enlarge for best viewing
Museum Volunteers John Walter top
and Jim Porter standing attaching the CG4A canopy to the glider
frame. The fabric covering has been completed and will soon be painted. The
basic interior is complete soon to have the controls and instruments installed. The
museum workshop is named "Walter Works" in honor of John
Walter's expert contributions to the museum projects. Note the fine
woodworking and fabric reconstruction in the interior view. All the wood and
coverings was done to original specifications. The metal parts were completely
stripped, straightened, primed and painted.
John Walter and John Hodel
pictured working on the CG4A nose section project. Additional
parts were retrieved from the St. Louis area including an almost intact cockpit
window section. Part of the nose section seen in this photo is sitting on the
floor pointed up with the bottom being held John Hodel. This portion will
be covered with special plywood as in the original construction with the window
section on the other side where John Walter is working. Picture the
section from the photo at the bottom of this page. If you would turn that
picture nose up it will give you an idea of what they are working on.
The museum volunteers are currently rebuilding the nose
section of a CG4A Glider for display. This long term project will take many
hours of painstaking work as every part has to be rebuilt or refinished by hand.
As you can see by this page from the CG4A Glider Manual the many parts
on the table in front of Bruce Dalton, WWII Glider Pilot, the amount of work
needed to rebuild the glider nose section. Museum volunteers, the 95ers, in the
workshop at the museum going over the glider blueprints and detail work for the
restoration project.
Photographs of the CG4-A Glider nose
project showing some of the reconstructive wood working and a CG4-A
cockpit window work project.
Some of the museum staff volunteers and
the wooden framework for the CG4A Glider nose project detached from the
metal frame for painting. From left to right the volunteers are John Hoff,
John Hodel, Jim Porter, Bob Henry, John Walter, Tom Vickers, Gus Potthoff and
Dutchess in the lower right hand corner. Dutchess approves of the craftsmanship.
John Hodel, John Walter and Bob Kirk assembling the plywood
outer covering to the glider nose. The fabric covering has been added and the Plexiglas
windows are in the final stages of restoration.
These photographs show a completed CG4A
Glider nose restoration project. The photos were taken by museum volunteer Gordon
Lake at the Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover Air Force
Base Dover, Delaware. Click on this web site address to take you to the AMC
Museum at Dover Air Force Base.
http://www.amcmuseum.org
This photograph shows some CG4A Glider
main sections in the glider graveyard. Note the tree growing through the
framework. All that's left of the CG4A's is the tubing that the main body
of the glider was fabricated. The museum staff visited this glider graveyard
located in the Kansas City area to recover some parts needed for the museum
restoration project.
What a shame! What a waste! All the glider
fabric and wooden parts have long since rotted away and all that remains is the
cut up center sections of the CG4A Gliders. There is no price that can be
put on a fully restored CG4A Glider today. More CG4A Glider graveyard
photographs. Look at the beautifully restored CG4A Glider at the Wright
Patterson Air Force Museum pictured below and try to imagine the many
gliders that this glider graveyard represents.
The museum is looking for photographs, equipment,
parts, manuals and related CG4A Glider items for donation to the museum. If you
served at the base and wish to add your personal accounts of service,
photographs and memorabilia to the museum archives and display material you my do
so by contacting the museum.
CG4A Glider as displayed at the USAF Museum
Wright Patterson
For More Information Contact:
Atterbury-Bakalar Air Museum
4742 Ray Boll Boulevard Columbus, Indiana 47203
Tel: 812 372-4356
