Our Second Trip to the Florence Air and Missile Museum
Florence S.C. - June, 1996
The Incredible Hulk
I guess we're weird, but we really like this old hulk. Last year we
couldn't figure out what it was, so I asked Ginny when I called this
year. She told me it was a glider, and suddenly it made sense. We think
this is the remains of a WWII assault glider. Scared teenagers holding
rifles actually rode these things down into fields where other scared teenagers
in different uniforms could shoot at them. Maybe "made sense" was a poor
choice of words.
You can see these things were basically built for one flight. A bit of
steel tubing, some wood, and old bed sheets. The Warmonger ran his hands
over a rotten remnant, and said "Gee, this little scrap of wood is fifty
years old." I considered a short lecture on how SOME things about fifty
years old are still in perfect ( well good ) running order, but decided
not to pursue it.
Lee told us the C97 had three restrooms. An airplane person would not have
brought this up, but Lee, as stated before, is a normal human being.
It was fun hearing the Warmonger admit that he, the fountain of all
aeronautical knowledge, had not thought of that particular specification
before.
We were scheduled to study this display in detail, but a
class of second graders had come by that morning and not much was left.
Continue the Tour Long Pointy Things
Back to the Florence Museum Page
Flightline II
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