My Dad was a WWII glider pilot, he flew on 6 June D-Day and Market Garden, and one of the few to come home. He went on to retire from the Air Force with 24 years service. He was very proud of his Wings with the “G” on them. As was the case in his time he spoke very little if any about those days, and when he did it was with another pilot. There seem to be limited articles about American military gliders so when I see an article I always read it. He Passes in 2000. A very proud man!! Thank You Theron
Just flying an aircraft without an engine takes a lot of guts, fully loaded, no defense weapons, all on land are shooting. My respects to all brave men.
My Grandfather was a 1st Airborne Ranger and could have been one of the ground pounders yours could have been dropping on D-Day. I inherited some of his WWII stuff but was to young when he was alive to even ask him about those days. My mother recalls his mom talking about him helping free a city and how he talked about being kissed by a lot by girls who he said seemed delirious and how he felt happy for them but sad at the same time. Her telling my mother how a man admitting something like that says about a mans character. He went on to serve in Korea and ended up with a purple heart there. She also recalls him saying during the Vietnam war that the politicians were trying to do the same thing in Korea and make it an endless war through concession and negotiations with those who are trying to kill us. Here we just now end 20+ years in Afghanistan badly and not just due to politicians but because of Politician Generals. I did not know him well of for that long but I know him well enough to know that he's probably rolled over in his grave because of what's been done to this nation..
Theron, please read “Silent Wings at War: Combat Gliders in World War Two”. I was enlightened by this book. It will give you a first person view of what your father was up to during the war! He had great reason to be proud of his “G” wings! From a fellow Army Aviator, I thank your father for his service! Kent
The next successful glider developed to carry 40 troops was the Douglas XCG-17 which was an American assault glider, developed by the conversion of a C-47 Skytrain twin-engine transport in 1944. Both engines were removed and the engine nacelles faired over. Although the XCG-17 was successfully tested, the requirement for such a large glider had passed, and no further examples of the type were built; one additional C-47, however, was converted in the field to glider configuration briefly during 1946 for evaluation, but was quickly reconverted to powered configuration.
The pick-up system is pretty damn incredible. To snag a tow rope and then get the glider to takeoff speed without stalling the tow aircraft is amazing.
@@johnpotter4750 The tug carried a winch system that allowed the initial snatch load to be dissipated paying out some line, and natural stretch so neither tug or glider suffer irreparable damage
@@johnpotter4750 When designing such a system you always include safety margins ... which means the material doesnt reach the point of "being stretched irreparably". Fibres break and polymers age ... so you will have to replace it after some time, but probably not because of lack of elasticity.
Building a glider of that size and that massive a payload is a remarkable achievement. Doesn’t sound like the craft itself failed but even so it was too late for Overlord, the invasion it was tailor-made for.
Lotta good info you shared!! Love the history. Speaking of history, Here in Michigan we have a Kingsford glider in a museum fully restored!! These were produced here. The museum is in Iron Mountain, MI. History needs to be shared!
@@TheHermitHacker if I'm required to sound equalize as the consumer I'm good. I've been watching here for years and was just letting them know the new sound volumes are a bit off
@@TheHermitHacker In that case then maybe a warning before the video starts that headphones and soundstage are necessary to hear the video properly. Do you idiots even think before speaking/writing?
The most beautiful and gentle landing I have ever seen. Starting at 4:37. The glider seems to float just above the ground, ..ground effect probly. Thanks for such cool videos!
Initially I was confused by this video. That version of glider (XG-16) and the concept of a pick up system are two very different topics. Granted there is some overlap, but trying to do both in one video confused me as to the focus. I'd love to see a video of the various pick-up systems in use (not indirectly related b-roll), and a totally separate video of this glider.
Wow so many haters. Who else is doing these documentaries? Just enjoy and move on, or just move on...or, try your abilities and produce your own documentary? So easy to criticize, not so easy to compete. I like this series. Much to learn about millitary history.
@@channelsixtysix066 No transport aircraft can compensate for violent shifts in cargo load balance, that's why there is a specialized set of aircrew technicians on board them called 'load masters', in the early days things where a bit more lackadaisical and not so stringently formalized.
@@Veldtian1 - This was in a time of war as well. There are many stories of maintenance mistakes, causing plane crashes, as air maintenance crews were under immense pressure. Due to a glider having no power and being lightly built, there was no chance of correcting for even a minor shift in loads.
@@channelsixtysix066 engine or no engine. An aft ch will crash any aircraft. When you load you always balance the load if you fail to balance you either have extremely heavy controls or extreamly sensitive controls both will cause you to have problems that you might not be able to deal with . For safe flight the load must be kept balanced from start to finish of every flight. That is the reason fuel tanks are most often placed in the wings on the center of gravity. It is also why fuel use from those Wing tanks must be closely observed to keep the plane balanced from side to side.
William Hawley Bowlus (1896 - 1967) was an American engineer and inventor based in Southern California. Bowlus designed many gliders and camping trailers. He also taught many early American glider pilots. While spending weekends gliding in California's high deserts, Bowlus invented the Bowuls Road Chief: the first aluminum monocoque camping trailer: In 1936, Airstream copied Bowlus' lead to develop the Airstream Clipper which set the standard for all future camping trailers. I rented an Airstream trailer during the year that I lived in the Mojave Desert.
There is a WACO glider being restored at the Yanks Air museum at the Chino Airport in California. I was a paratrooper in the 70s but we retained the glider on the garrison hat patch and I wore one proudly when I left Ft. Benning. Glider troop had guts and it was a lot more dangerous than just jumping out of a plane!
Sand becomes a fluid if subjected to vibration, if you lash a sandbag across the middle, then subject it to turbulence on an incline (eg climb) the sand will 'flow' under gravity into the lower part of the bag causing the lashing to fail. If only the designers had seen those earthquake videos we have today where the ground becomes 'liquid'.
"all the bags were securely lashed" "the bags shifted aft because of turbulence" um... then they were not securely lashed. these two statements cannot both be true.
A Lt. Stationed in the Philippines took flying lessons. On his 1st solo they strapped a sandbag into the empty seat, it came loose and jammed the stick. He figured it out before crashing, rolled and dumped the bag out. You would know him as President Eisenhower
Just went through a glider museum in Kingsford Michigan (yes the very same Kingsford that makes the charcoal). They produced gliders used in the Normandy Invasion.
All this heroic music, and I don't know how many times this showed F6F Hellcats which are utterly irrelevant and anachronistic to the story of this glider.
The DC-3 Dakota had a very effective and efficient wing design. Though not good for high speeds it could land, take off and glide effectively. And they were often used with shorter and rougher airfields that were quickly made. They thought about the idea of using the DC-3 as a glider during WW2 and it had a very good glide performance. Butter than some of the other combat gliders. But using a DC-3 as a glider was not so cost-effective but as it was the DC-3 was hugely successful and effective. They were also very well made. They were so well made that they still have some of them in use today despite their age. Their low speed lift capability was great for towing and recovery of gliders. And some were still in military use in the year 200. The US uses a lot of very old aircraft in service today. And still use some very old designs. The B-52s are among the oldest US military aircraft. Also the UH-1 Huey helicopters. The latest fighters that the airforce is buying at the moment is the new F-15 fighters that were first developed in the 1970s. The USAF has been trying for decades to replace the KC-135 Stratotankers inflight refueling tankers. . This is based on the same design as the revolutionary B-707 passenger aircraft. Some of those very old US aircraft were great and had tough designs. There are many other old aircraft types still in service. Though the USAF is not operating the SR-71 spyplane it is still an amazing design and first flew in 1964. It still holds many world records.
Yeah aviation history is awesome it’s like finding old bands that you like. This plane I have never seen before. At the thumb nail I thought it was a new military drone !you can see similarities with this fuse and alot of modern day drones.
I was thinking that too, it looks like the Chinese bombers. All these old planes look so much cooler than the crap we got now, they're like modern cars where they all look the same.
Hadn't made that connection. But does remind me of the troop transports from The Shape of Things to Come in 1936, so that may have been an inspiration for the design.
@@wesrrowlands8309 A big part of the reason for that is computer modeling of airfoils has finally got really, really good. So a wing doesn't need to be 15 feet wide where it joins the fuselage; the foil can lift more with less structure involved. Smaller, lighter. So less production cost, and less fuel burned. It makes sense. But planes aren't as lovely as they used to be, and that is a great shame.
It looks like an outtake from the Tex Avery cartoon Home of Tomorrow. 'We crossed a 50's electric razor and an airplane to get an XCG-16.' "We crossed an owl and a goat to get a hootanany." "We crossed a broom and a skunk to get a ten-foot-polekat." Given the resemblance to a shaver I wonder if this was one of those ideas someone 'got in the shower'.
@@sufianansari4923 well i didnt go back to look at it, donno if i could have judged the age of it, but i do know that the c130 has been around since the early 60's
@@sufianansari4923 and i donno, after goin back n lookin at it, im not sure youre right, not sayin im right, but this shot could have easily been takin in the 60's or 70's, unless im missin somethin that you can point out to me
@@Turbopotato3000 I love good dramatic music when it fits the scene but there are no scenes in a documentary that calls for music and a few times it is to loud. I like the "Dark" is one of my favorite channels, they usually do a wonder job of pairing facts to the videos and in my opinion music throws it off. Watch it again listen.
You are truly great and I do appreciate the work and dedication you put into your documentaries. But may I help you with a constructive criticism which you may have already heard before which is your fast speaking, if you could speak a tad slower it sure would be more pleasing to a vast part of the audiences ears (that's just my humble opinion from my exp. as a dubbing assistance). Only want to help but nevertheless it is already very good as it is. You are doing outstanding work! God or whatever may bless you!
After the causalities sustained by the gliders we did use during the hours leading up to the beach landings I'm wondering if it might not have been worse if we did use these giant things.
Vincent Burnelli may have been the best not-quite-successful aircraft engineer of the early aviation period. He developed his lifting body concepts over a series of designs that only once got past a single prototype.
Well you did it again I didn’t think it was many aircraft that I haven’t seen at least some of my books I’m on usual aircraft but I’ve never seen this one before very interesting thank you so much once again
Looks very similar to the Horton Brother's flying wing in pre war Germany. I was surprised to see one glider fitted with four twin cylinder drone motors, of which I have one, retrieved from El Mirage long ago. Also a 3 axis Challenger ultralight.
I had to search why there aren’t more lifting body aircraft and one point was pretty good. Pressurization is ideal in a tube when compared to this shape. With most planes being high altitude passenger planes, I can see why. Too bad, there’d be some more designs I bet that are pretty cool.
Meanwhile, everyone who's looked into it from McD & Boeing, NASA, Airbus and TsAGI and others says that it's not a great technical challenge to pressurize it, that it won't necessarily be more heavy and in fact can easily be less empty structural weight per unit payload/range. But even if it is more massive, the benefits in L/D and payload/ range more than make up for it. Not just in company PR sheets or patent claims, but in peer-reviewed sources, they show this.
Then there was the Burnelli plane that had mechanical errors on its last test flight before delivery: the ailerons came off at 200feet. It hit the ground at 120 kts, 120 degree roll, 25 degrees nose down. The wings and tail turned into confetti and the engines broke off at the fuselage body box cart-wheeled across the field. It came to rest upright, intact. When they broke it open and got to them, the 2 crew walked away. And for saving weight and maximizing payload, we make planes that if they skid off the runway, they fragment and churn the passengers up in a fireball of debris.
WOW...I've never seen a innovate design of a plane(glider), from the US Airforce past like this one. Thanks for the History lesson and I always give your channel a "like", even before enjoying your content.
@@timgosling3076 Thank god for that, extreme, to kick out of a spin and recover to 220mph. So it wasn't a NASA Brick, I feel happier, weirdly ;- / Bet it was a rattling metal monster.....
Fascinating, thanks. But it would have been great if you could have addressed (1) why gliders are even needed? (2) why the program only lasted one year after the crash? I am sure lots of prototype planes crash, and in this case it was due to shifting cargo, which surely could easily have been rectified. It would have been good to know why it the project was ultimately abandoned. Any ideas? Cheers.
@@ferky123 Thanks. But this video emphasised that the pick-up system was seen a great element of this craft, indicating these gliders were not being designed to be throw-away.
I know it's hard to find enough historical footage about certain airplanes. I have gotten used to seeing the same stock footage of designers hard at work designing in just about all of your videos about airplanes. However, I found myself confused for about 5 minutes as you discussed mail pick-up systems which you accompanied with completely irrelevant video footage. Why go on about mail pick-up and glider pick-up systems when this video is supposed to be about the XCG-16? We had to wait until the 5:30 mark before you started talking about it. There really is nothing wrong with making a 5 minute video if that is all the footage you have.
While I agree with you about the stock footage, the purpose of the telling about mail was that the technology was used for the gliders. It is relevant to the topic. 🙂
It's really amazing that so many spectacularly bad ideas were tried. But these bad ideas are of great importance, because that's where thinking outside of the box originates. Sometimes you knock one out of the park.
I'm subscribed to all your channels and support your content, so please understand my critique. Sometimes your footage is really lacking. I know it's hard to get usable footage, but for example, in this episode, was there really nothing you could use for the early method for capturing items on the ground?
what are you talking about - Three prototypes of the military XCG-16 were ordered but only one was completed as 44-76193. Trials revealed major deficiencies in the ability of the CG-16 to fulfill the intended mission, despite good flying qualities. 3 whey even wasn't in the War! Do about something in production and fight
Computer(even if vacuum tube and motor powered gyro based) stabilization would have been necessary but the technology wasn't there then. B2 Stealth became flyable because 32-bit computers capable to stabilize flying wings became available in the late '80s.
love the vid, truely but i would suggest turning the back ground music just a little bit, it can be a bit too bousterous, please keep up the great work
Burnelli's designs were quite innovative. And overshadowed by several other designers. There were several different designs and several airframes built. But most are lost to history
I became interested in the Italian Piaggio P.108A heavy warplane, equipped with the 102 mm cannon on its nose. That is a rarely seen aircraft until it was popularized in War Thunder.
Yes it is too loud and this guy is too into his role playing as he pretends to be from the era he is reporting on. He is too mich of a mouth-breather to properly match the persona he is emulating.
Gliders as a concept in war always baffled me. Why would you want to send your troops in with an aircraft that can neither abort nor return. Just put an engine on it.
4 reasons - 1) Cost - gliders are relatively cheap to construct with a minimum of strategic materials. 2) Versus parachuting at the time, which tended to scatter troops over a large area, you could concentrate forces on a single location. 3) Landing length - given most gliders slow stall & landing speeds, they landed in shorter distances than comparable aircraft of the day. 4) Stealth - No engine meant no sound and in the role of delivery of assault troops, you put a lot of people in a confined space before the enemy knew what was going on. Both the Axis (Eben Emael) and the Allies (D-Day, Market Garden, others) used gliders specifically to concentrate forces at key points. Though, personally I've always wondered why no tried making an assault autogryo in the late 1930s. There is nothing about something like a Rotodyne that couldn't have been built in 1936.
Yes! That was a fine film, came out before my birth but I am a child of the 80's so I do adore it in all its archaic glory in terms of acting style(still better than Dune 2000 and most qcting since that year).
Weird. The background music in this video reminded me of parts of the soundtrack from the movie “Dune” just before I read this comment. And, yes, the glider does seem similar in shape to the ships in Dune as well.
1st time commenter. 68... yeah, old. But! I built planes in the day. Douglas DC-10, DC-9, YF-11 and Northrop F-5, T-38, F-20. So as a surface and structure assembler I have always wondered since childhood why don't gliders have power assist? I know it is a matter of degree and shades of gray in application. Were there no Dark Skies appropriate projects to build an episode like this one? I always like Dark Skies, Dark Seas etc. Thank you and your team for the excellent concise work! Sam
My Dad was a WWII glider pilot, he flew on 6 June D-Day and Market Garden, and one of the few to come home. He went on to retire from the Air Force with 24 years service. He was very proud of his Wings with the “G” on them. As was the case in his time he spoke very little if any about those days, and when he did it was with another pilot.
There seem to be limited articles about American military gliders so when I see an article I always read it.
He Passes in 2000. A very proud man!!
Thank You
Theron
They used to say the G stood for GUTS!
Just flying an aircraft without an engine takes a lot of guts, fully loaded, no defense weapons, all on land are shooting. My respects to all brave men.
My Grandfather was a 1st Airborne Ranger and could have been one of the ground pounders yours could have been dropping on D-Day. I inherited some of his WWII stuff but was to young when he was alive to even ask him about those days. My mother recalls his mom talking about him helping free a city and how he talked about being kissed by a lot by girls who he said seemed delirious and how he felt happy for them but sad at the same time. Her telling my mother how a man admitting something like that says about a mans character. He went on to serve in Korea and ended up with a purple heart there. She also recalls him saying during the Vietnam war that the politicians were trying to do the same thing in Korea and make it an endless war through concession and negotiations with those who are trying to kill us. Here we just now end 20+ years in Afghanistan badly and not just due to politicians but because of Politician Generals. I did not know him well of for that long but I know him well enough to know that he's probably rolled over in his grave because of what's been done to this nation..
@@battano You can be proud of your grandfather..This country needs the "draft"..I often wonder if needed, would todays youth fight for freedom..
Theron, please read “Silent Wings at War: Combat Gliders in World War Two”. I was enlightened by this book. It will give you a first person view of what your father was up to during the war! He had great reason to be proud of his “G” wings! From a fellow Army Aviator, I thank your father for his service!
Kent
The next successful glider developed to carry 40 troops was the Douglas XCG-17 which was an American assault glider, developed by the conversion of a C-47 Skytrain twin-engine transport in 1944.
Both engines were removed and the engine nacelles faired over.
Although the XCG-17 was successfully tested, the requirement for such a large glider had passed, and no further examples of the type were built;
one additional C-47, however, was converted in the field to glider configuration briefly during 1946 for evaluation, but was quickly reconverted to powered configuration.
The pick-up system is pretty damn incredible. To snag a tow rope and then get the glider to takeoff speed without stalling the tow aircraft is amazing.
I wonder how many pick ups before the tug is irreparably stretched out joint.
@@johnpotter4750 The tug carried a winch system that allowed the initial snatch load to be dissipated paying out some line, and natural stretch so neither tug or glider suffer irreparable damage
@@johnpotter4750 When designing such a system you always include safety margins ... which means the material doesnt reach the point of "being stretched irreparably". Fibres break and polymers age ... so you will have to replace it after some time, but probably not because of lack of elasticity.
@@Muck006 I believe the GI's have a saying.....
Skyhook.
Building a glider of that size and that massive a payload is a remarkable achievement. Doesn’t sound like the craft itself failed but even so it was too late for Overlord, the invasion it was tailor-made for.
Lotta good info you shared!! Love the history. Speaking of history, Here in Michigan we have a Kingsford glider in a museum fully restored!! These were produced here. The museum is in Iron Mountain, MI. History needs to be shared!
As neat as this craft is, I can't help thinking that it looks like a Remington Electric Shaver, with wings.
It also flies underwater.
So what you mean is it looks like the new hummers but with less wheels and more wings haha
Yeah pretty much!!!
Yes, you said that about modern cars, too, Marv.
reminds me of a retro microphone
Your ability to find new, fascinating topics never ceases to amaze me. Please, keep me amazed.
Love the content. Always have. Had a hard time hearing you over the massive orchestra though
@@TheHermitHacker if I'm required to sound equalize as the consumer I'm good. I've been watching here for years and was just letting them know the new sound volumes are a bit off
Agreed. It was a little much on this one.
@@TheHermitHacker In that case then maybe a warning before the video starts that headphones and soundstage are necessary to hear the video properly. Do you idiots even think before speaking/writing?
The most beautiful and gentle landing I have ever seen. Starting at 4:37. The glider seems to float just above the ground, ..ground effect probly.
Thanks for such cool videos!
Initially I was confused by this video. That version of glider (XG-16) and the concept of a pick up system are two very different topics. Granted there is some overlap, but trying to do both in one video confused me as to the focus. I'd love to see a video of the various pick-up systems in use (not indirectly related b-roll), and a totally separate video of this glider.
Wow so many haters. Who else is doing these documentaries? Just enjoy and move on, or just move on...or, try your abilities and produce your own documentary? So easy to criticize, not so easy to compete.
I like this series. Much to learn about millitary history.
It sounds like what really brought the glider down was something that wasn’t even part of the glider. It was killed by, of all things, ballast.
Shows how sensitive transport gliders were, if loads shifted. There are no heavy engines at the front to counter act it.
@@channelsixtysix066 No transport aircraft can compensate for violent shifts in cargo load balance, that's why there is a specialized set of aircrew technicians on board them called 'load masters', in the early days things where a bit more lackadaisical and not so stringently formalized.
@@Veldtian1 - This was in a time of war as well. There are many stories of maintenance mistakes, causing plane crashes, as air maintenance crews were under immense pressure. Due to a glider having no power and being lightly built, there was no chance of correcting for even a minor shift in loads.
@@channelsixtysix066 engine or no engine. An aft ch will crash any aircraft. When you load you always balance the load if you fail to balance you either have extremely heavy controls or extreamly sensitive controls both will cause you to have problems that you might not be able to deal with . For safe flight the load must be kept balanced from start to finish of every flight. That is the reason fuel tanks are most often placed in the wings on the center of gravity. It is also why fuel use from those Wing tanks must be closely observed to keep the plane balanced from side to side.
@@channelsixtysix066 sorry, engines are irrelevant. They're just mass to be compensated for by placement of the ballast.
William Hawley Bowlus (1896 - 1967) was an American engineer and inventor based in Southern California. Bowlus designed many gliders and camping trailers. He also taught many early American glider pilots. While spending weekends gliding in California's high deserts, Bowlus invented the Bowuls Road Chief: the first aluminum monocoque camping trailer: In 1936, Airstream copied Bowlus' lead to develop the Airstream Clipper which set the standard for all future camping trailers. I rented an Airstream trailer during the year that I lived in the Mojave Desert.
There is a WACO glider being restored at the Yanks Air museum at the Chino Airport in California. I was a paratrooper in the 70s but we retained the glider on the garrison hat patch and I wore one proudly when I left Ft. Benning. Glider troop had guts and it was a lot more dangerous than just jumping out of a plane!
I love the way that glider looks!
First time I've heard of this aircraft. Good work!
I really enjoy this channel. I just found it today and love it. I enjoy the education and knowledge. Great video footage.
Sand becomes a fluid if subjected to vibration, if you lash a sandbag across the middle, then subject it to turbulence on an incline (eg climb) the sand will 'flow' under gravity into the lower part of the bag causing the lashing to fail. If only the designers had seen those earthquake videos we have today where the ground becomes 'liquid'.
"all the bags were securely lashed" "the bags shifted aft because of turbulence" um... then they were not securely lashed. these two statements cannot both be true.
A box ticker signed off, never trust....
As a former military pilot, that's exactly what I was thinking. That's exactly what happened in a flight out of Afghanistan one time.
Good enough, those bags are so heavy they never will shift!
A Lt. Stationed in the Philippines took flying lessons. On his 1st solo they strapped a sandbag into the empty seat, it came loose and jammed the stick. He figured it out before crashing, rolled and dumped the bag out. You would know him as President Eisenhower
@@raymondclark1785 lucky it wasn't a glider never inverted a glider, though stubble burning fields below damn well tried.
It's like a flying harmonica!
Hahahahahahahaahahaha
Just went through a glider museum in Kingsford Michigan (yes the very same Kingsford that makes the charcoal). They produced gliders used in the Normandy Invasion.
All this heroic music, and I don't know how many times this showed F6F Hellcats which are utterly irrelevant and anachronistic to the story of this glider.
A few fighter aircraft became gliders but that never ends well :(
@@raymondclark1785 You have a point there....
I kept wondering why you were showing photos of the f6f Hellcat. They had nothing to do with this story.
….he uses a lot of filler video in his videos.
The DC-3 Dakota had a very effective and efficient wing design. Though not good for high speeds it could land, take off and glide effectively. And they were often used with shorter and rougher airfields that were quickly made. They thought about the idea of using the DC-3 as a glider during WW2 and it had a very good glide performance. Butter than some of the other combat gliders. But using a DC-3 as a glider was not so cost-effective but as it was the DC-3 was hugely successful and effective. They were also very well made. They were so well made that they still have some of them in use today despite their age. Their low speed lift capability was great for towing and recovery of gliders. And some were still in military use in the year 200. The US uses a lot of very old aircraft in service today. And still use some very old designs. The B-52s are among the oldest US military aircraft. Also the UH-1 Huey helicopters. The latest fighters that the airforce is buying at the moment is the new F-15 fighters that were first developed in the 1970s. The USAF has been trying for decades to replace the KC-135 Stratotankers inflight refueling tankers. . This is based on the same design as the revolutionary B-707 passenger aircraft. Some of those very old US aircraft were great and had tough designs. There are many other old aircraft types still in service. Though the USAF is not operating the SR-71 spyplane it is still an amazing design and first flew in 1964. It still holds many world records.
Love these videos. Personally I think its amazing to learn all of our worlds aviation Accomplishments from around the globe
Agreed. Grew up watching Discovery Wings... But now that void is filled by Dark Skies. Excellent content.
Yeah aviation history is awesome it’s like finding old bands that you like. This plane I have never seen before. At the thumb nail I thought it was a new military drone !you can see similarities with this fuse and alot of modern day drones.
Check out their other channels
The XCG-16 looks like it might have been the inspiration for the bomber aircraft seen in the Battle of Anchorage DLC for Fallout 3.
And the "flying wing" passenger craft in F4
I was thinking that too, it looks like the Chinese bombers. All these old planes look so much cooler than the crap we got now, they're like modern cars where they all look the same.
That was my first thought, too
Hadn't made that connection. But does remind me of the troop transports from The Shape of Things to Come in 1936, so that may have been an inspiration for the design.
@@wesrrowlands8309 A big part of the reason for that is computer modeling of airfoils has finally got really, really good. So a wing doesn't need to be 15 feet wide where it joins the fuselage; the foil can lift more with less structure involved. Smaller, lighter. So less production cost, and less fuel burned. It makes sense.
But planes aren't as lovely as they used to be, and that is a great shame.
nice timing just watched all your other videos from all your channels :) and i was like what now? lol when boom you upload :) :)
Another flying wonder video. Keep finding more of the strange and bazaar aircraft.
It looks like an outtake from the Tex Avery cartoon Home of Tomorrow. 'We crossed a 50's electric razor and an airplane to get an XCG-16.' "We crossed an owl and a goat to get a hootanany." "We crossed a broom and a skunk to get a ten-foot-polekat."
Given the resemblance to a shaver I wonder if this was one of those ideas someone 'got in the shower'.
Your usual quality video here. BUT, dial back the music a few decibels. Was difficult to hear the narration.
5:23 - oh wow! Proof of time travelling C-130's!
it also caught me by surprise a lil,, like oh,, we in the sixties now lol
@@trope5105 that C-130 was not from the sixties my good man - more like from the past twenty years or so
@@sufianansari4923 well i didnt go back to look at it, donno if i could have judged the age of it, but i do know that the c130 has been around since the early 60's
@@sufianansari4923 and i donno, after goin back n lookin at it, im not sure youre right, not sayin im right, but this shot could have easily been takin in the 60's or 70's, unless im missin somethin that you can point out to me
@@trope5105 true, true - it'll be around for a lot longer as well
Thanks
These are getting much better! Your footage was almost 100% on topic today!
loveing the new music dude! nice change of pace.
It distracted me.
@@johnnyj540 too dramatic or too loud?
@@Turbopotato3000 I love good dramatic music when it fits the scene but there are no scenes in a documentary that calls for music and a few times it is to loud. I like the "Dark" is one of my favorite channels, they usually do a wonder job of pairing facts to the videos and in my opinion music throws it off. Watch it again listen.
Thank you.
Wow, it looks like a flying electric shaver. Good Job!
Like I said before, this channel is really underated.
You are truly great and I do appreciate the work and dedication you put into your documentaries. But may I help you with a constructive criticism which you may have already heard before which is your fast speaking, if you could speak a tad slower it sure would be more pleasing to a vast part of the audiences ears (that's just my humble opinion from my exp. as a dubbing assistance). Only want to help but nevertheless it is already very good as it is. You are doing outstanding work! God or whatever may bless you!
After the causalities sustained by the gliders we did use during the hours leading up to the beach landings I'm wondering if it might not have been worse if we did use these giant things.
It may have been a better idea than Landing on Omaha Beach. Get behind the guns rather than walk inTo them....
Great ! a very different type of plane we dont usually see from aircraft channels. Good job bringing some variety
Vincent Burnelli may have been the best not-quite-successful aircraft engineer of the early aviation period. He developed his lifting body concepts over a series of designs that only once got past a single prototype.
Well you did it again I didn’t think it was many aircraft that I haven’t seen at least some of my books I’m on usual aircraft but I’ve never seen this one before very interesting thank you so much once again
That looks like the perfect ammunition carrier drone.
We should pick up this design again.
This is a good vid to see as gliders done so much in war as did parachutes until advent of the helicopter
The US Army toyed around the idea of a backpack helicopter, it never went into production.
@@markplott4820 Well theres a subject for a new dark doc!
Great video, amazing amount of research. --- Thanks for the upload. ---
Looks very similar to the Horton Brother's flying wing in pre war Germany. I was surprised to see one glider fitted with four twin cylinder drone motors, of which I have one, retrieved from El Mirage long ago. Also a 3 axis Challenger ultralight.
September 11 1943. Wow interesting info. Uncle was a "glider rider" 17th ABN 194 GIR Co.B.
I wouldn't use the word "powerful" to describe an unarmed, unpowered glider.... "capable", perhaps.
It can still lift a lot of weight so I’d say it’s powerful.
I had to search why there aren’t more lifting body aircraft and one point was pretty good. Pressurization is ideal in a tube when compared to this shape. With most planes being high altitude passenger planes, I can see why. Too bad, there’d be some more designs I bet that are pretty cool.
I too was wondering the same. Thanks for the explanation.
Meanwhile, everyone who's looked into it from McD & Boeing, NASA, Airbus and TsAGI and others says that it's not a great technical challenge to pressurize it, that it won't necessarily be more heavy and in fact can easily be less empty structural weight per unit payload/range. But even if it is more massive, the benefits in L/D and payload/ range more than make up for it.
Not just in company PR sheets or patent claims, but in peer-reviewed sources, they show this.
Then there was the Burnelli plane that had mechanical errors on its last test flight before delivery: the ailerons came off at 200feet.
It hit the ground at 120 kts, 120 degree roll, 25 degrees nose down.
The wings and tail turned into confetti and the engines broke off at the fuselage body box cart-wheeled across the field. It came to rest upright, intact.
When they broke it open and got to them, the 2 crew walked away.
And for saving weight and maximizing payload, we make planes that if they skid off the runway, they fragment and churn the passengers up in a fireball of debris.
I'm sure it opened up ideas for other designs. It was an interesting concept.
@Heinous Anus wow honestly I would have never thought of that.
It looks really neat. Modern aircraft should take advantage of the "lifting fuselage".
My grandfather worked for All American under DuPont, we still have some of the hooks from these retrieval systems
In the 1960' s this was upscaled to allow a transport or bomber to extract a single soldier using a gas filled balloon.
Skyhook.
In the 1980s a paramilitary group took it a step further and introduced wormhole technology to the mix, eliminating the need for a pickup aircraft.
Very cool. This is one that I never knew of before this video!
I never seen this Glider great video !
WOW...I've never seen a innovate design of a plane(glider), from the US Airforce past like this one. Thanks for the History lesson and I always give your channel a "like", even before enjoying your content.
Looks almost wide enough to land on a lagoon, or shallow puddle/lake if you could dump Cof G to the rear. 220km is fast for a glider landing
@@johnpotter4750 The quote of 220 mph was its never-exceed speed. It was towed at about 150 and landed at 60 mph.
@@timgosling3076 Thank god for that, extreme, to kick out of a spin and recover to 220mph. So it wasn't a NASA Brick, I feel happier, weirdly ;- /
Bet it was a rattling metal monster.....
Fascinating, thanks. But it would have been great if you could have addressed (1) why gliders are even needed? (2) why the program only lasted one year after the crash? I am sure lots of prototype planes crash, and in this case it was due to shifting cargo, which surely could easily have been rectified. It would have been good to know why it the project was ultimately abandoned. Any ideas? Cheers.
Because you needed throw away planes that can land anywhere and be relatively cheap. Also it's a good way to double your aircraft cheaply.
@@ferky123 Thanks. But this video emphasised that the pick-up system was seen a great element of this craft, indicating these gliders were not being designed to be throw-away.
Lots of bonus F6F Hellcat footage for a vidja about Army gliders.
I know it's hard to find enough historical footage about certain airplanes. I have gotten used to seeing the same stock footage of designers hard at work designing in just about all of your videos about airplanes. However, I found myself confused for about 5 minutes as you discussed mail pick-up systems which you accompanied with completely irrelevant video footage. Why go on about mail pick-up and glider pick-up systems when this video is supposed to be about the XCG-16? We had to wait until the 5:30 mark before you started talking about it. There really is nothing wrong with making a 5 minute video if that is all the footage you have.
While I agree with you about the stock footage, the purpose of the telling about mail was that the technology was used for the gliders. It is relevant to the topic. 🙂
"but his parachute failed" man what a way to go. Probably better than half surviving a glider crash and days later in the hospital, but still gdam
Looks like a flying the Norelco razor.
Mate your talking has slowed down alot, this is great as the video is far easyer to follow now, great job
Dude, great, interesting stuff as always…. Peace and respect from Across the Pomfret. Thank you! 👍🇬🇧🇺🇸
It's really amazing that so many spectacularly bad ideas were tried. But these bad ideas are of great importance, because that's where thinking outside of the box originates. Sometimes you knock one out of the park.
that is one cool glider
Absolutely love the new music, feels like a 1944 US war report they would have at the start of films then
I thought the music was annoying and distracting.
Why exactly were there so many clips of F6F Hellcats in very late-war paint schemes?
Extremely lazy editing, sadly par for the course for this channel.
Well done video. Interesting subject. Thanks
Wish it had more video of the gliders and pick up system.
I’ll bet it was crazy as hell inside looking out those windows
Thank you I really appreciate it this video I enjoyed it.
I'm subscribed to all your channels and support your content, so please understand my critique. Sometimes your footage is really lacking. I know it's hard to get usable footage, but for example, in this episode, was there really nothing you could use for the early method for capturing items on the ground?
When someone talks to you it's polite to turn the music off.
what are you talking about - Three prototypes of the military XCG-16 were ordered but only one was completed as 44-76193. Trials revealed major deficiencies in the ability of the CG-16 to fulfill the intended mission, despite good flying qualities.
3 whey even wasn't in the War! Do about something in production and fight
Computer(even if vacuum tube and motor powered gyro based) stabilization would have been necessary but the technology wasn't there then. B2 Stealth became flyable because 32-bit computers capable to stabilize flying wings became available in the late '80s.
love the vid, truely but i would suggest turning the back ground music just a little bit, it can be a bit too bousterous, please keep up the great work
Burnelli's designs were quite innovative. And overshadowed by several other designers. There were several different designs and several airframes built. But most are lost to history
One, the 1947 CBY-3 is restored in a museum.
It needed the tail set up like that of the p38
Nice glider, sad ending 😢
Fascinating
I became interested in the Italian Piaggio P.108A heavy warplane, equipped with the 102 mm cannon on its nose. That is a rarely seen aircraft until it was popularized in War Thunder.
A "More Powerful Glider" .... lets just take that in. A fascinating subject. The background music is too loud.
Yes it is too loud and this guy is too into his role playing as he pretends to be from the era he is reporting on. He is too mich of a mouth-breather to properly match the persona he is emulating.
Me looking at notifications:
Flying assault gli~
Me **Frantically pressing on notification on the phone**
Could you imagine if they put engines on this it would have been awesome
Gliders as a concept in war always baffled me. Why would you want to send your troops in with an aircraft that can neither abort nor return. Just put an engine on it.
Mainly stealth. They can have a low radar signature and they are quiet. This allows in theory covert insertions.
Si, stealth mi amigo
4 reasons - 1) Cost - gliders are relatively cheap to construct with a minimum of strategic materials. 2) Versus parachuting at the time, which tended to scatter troops over a large area, you could concentrate forces on a single location. 3) Landing length - given most gliders slow stall & landing speeds, they landed in shorter distances than comparable aircraft of the day. 4) Stealth - No engine meant no sound and in the role of delivery of assault troops, you put a lot of people in a confined space before the enemy knew what was going on. Both the Axis (Eben Emael) and the Allies (D-Day, Market Garden, others) used gliders specifically to concentrate forces at key points. Though, personally I've always wondered why no tried making an assault autogryo in the late 1930s. There is nothing about something like a Rotodyne that couldn't have been built in 1936.
Making the most of the limited amount of time, resources and engines available. If engines, time and resources aren’t an issue you’d be correct.
I don't know what was stealthy about this monstrosity. You could have glided in the DC-3 that probably towed it and had the same footprint.
i love your videos
The Norelco glider!
Excellent video. Looks like a flying wing ? kinda
Please cut or turn down the "dramatic" music. It's distracting
Very flash Gordon looking, all it needs is sputtering fireworks in the tail
Looking at this glider makes me wonder; could this be a predated version of today's blended wing design?
Same principle: eliminate non-lifting static drag.
Really loves these videos but the backing music is just too damn loud...
I was happy until "Retrieval Glider System" oh oh....
5:22 Anachronistic Herky Bird!
FWIW: I did not think I have ever heard of this particular glider aircrsft prior to watching this video.
Looks like something from Lynch's Dune.
Yes! That was a fine film, came out before my birth but I am a child of the 80's so I do adore it in all its archaic glory in terms of acting style(still better than Dune 2000 and most qcting since that year).
Weird. The background music in this video reminded me of parts of the soundtrack from the movie “Dune” just before I read this comment. And, yes, the glider does seem similar in shape to the ships in Dune as well.
Theres a very similar looking aircraft at the Bradley air museum in Connecticut, if im not mistaken.
"LECTRIC SHAVE!!!" :o)
1st time commenter. 68... yeah, old. But! I built planes in the day. Douglas DC-10, DC-9, YF-11 and Northrop F-5, T-38, F-20. So as a surface and structure assembler I have always wondered since childhood why don't gliders have power assist? I know it is a matter of degree and shades of gray in application. Were there no Dark Skies appropriate projects to build an episode like this one? I always like Dark Skies, Dark Seas etc. Thank you and your team for the excellent concise work! Sam
What shame , it really did look like it was bursting with potential. Great video , as ever : )