Waco CG-4A Home
Project Background
This site is intended to provide information to those seeking
to build and fly remote controlled (R/C) scale and semi-scale
models of the Waco CG-4A airborne assault glider that was
flown by the Allies in World War II.
I became interested in modeling the Waco CG-4A in a rather
roundabout fashion. My first and most enduring love as regards
aircraft is the P-51 Mustang, but at the time I began the
CG-4A project, there were no satisfactory EPP P-51 Mustang
kits available. The main reason I found the available kits
unsatisfactory had to do with the inherent paradox of the
PSS discipline, specifically, that of expecting a truly
scale model of a powered aircraft to make a decent slope
soaring glider.
Granted, at a slope with powerful lift conditions, almost
anything can (and has!) been made to fly. And many PSS planes
fly extremely well, provided suitable conditions. But these
planes almost always feature elongated wings and fuselages
which are designed to improve their gliding capabilities--often
at great expense to their scale fidelity. At the time I
began the CG-4A project, I felt that the available EPP P-51
kits left very much to be desired in terms of both their
flight performance and scale accuracy.
Thus I decided that, rather than settling for an unsatisfactory
rendition of my favorite airplane, I would try a different
alternative. Thanks to inspiration received from numerous
individuals on the RCGroups
forums, I decided to try my hand at scratchbuilding
an airplane.
So why the Waco CG-4A and not the P-51 Mustang?
Branching out from my realization of the PSS Paradox, yet
still desiring to model something from the WWII era, I wondered
whether anything such as a "combat glider" had
ever existed. In fact, as I recall I even did a Google
search for exactly those terms. Upon seeing the first
picture of the Waco CG-4A, I became convinced that I simply
had to build it. The CG-4A was just so unusual and
unique--some might even say ugly--that there could be no
other alternative.
It wasn't till after I had done more research into the
CG-4A that I learned of the largely unknown heroism and
service of the Glider Pilots and Glider Troopers. Their
story is every bit as impressive, riveting and exciting
as that of the fighter pilots, and often even more so because
of the near suicidal nature of many of the glider missions.
I became so interested in the history of the CG-4A and the
men who flew and rode it that I eventually tracked down
a copy of Gerard Devlin's "Silent Wings", a very
thorough (and out-of-print) account of the Allied glider
effort in WWII. Many of the photographs found on the Internet
of the Waco CG-4A are from his book. The book of course
also made an excellent reference for scale photographs and
other details pertinent to building the model CG-4A.
So, without really intending to, I managed to learn about
a fascinating and often horrifying aspect of WWII that I'd
previously had absolutely no knowledge of. Over the course
of the project, my building skills and general confidence
have increased by orders of magnitude. There is nothing
quite like scratchbuilding an airplane to deliver that kind
of experience! And there's nothing like choosing an unusual
scratchbuild project to teach you something new about history!
I hope that this site will prove useful to people interested
in modeling the Waco CG-4A, and inspirational to those modeling
other uncommon aircraft.
Steve Lange
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