Thanks Paul. Excellent video.
The night of the invasion, Walter Cronkite rode to Normandy in a CG-4 glider and mentioned the sound of the fabric covering of the fuselage drumming against the steel tube structure. He also mentioned that he didn’t expect to survive the landing. War correspondents were the real deal back then.
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Our group of aviation historians/glider pilots and airplane pilots–has visited Normandy 5 times in the past 25 years. We call ourselves “Bottomfeeders”–like Paul, we study the area thoroughly beforehand–like to travel on our own, and live like the locals.It’s amazing how the sites have been “developed” (perhaps improved–sometimes–best left as they were). Time to return again!
Thanks for the excellent commentary, Paul–you would make an excellent “Bottomfeeder!” (laugh)
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He also claimed the Vietnam War had been lost, just after we had kicked the butts of the NVA in the Tet offense.
Most of the glider training took place at Laurinburg - Maxton field near Ft. Bragg, NC. Still in use today. In the little hamlet of Marston, NC, between Ft. Bragg and Maxton, the Army build a temporary airfield, using for the first time PSP plates for the runway. Known better as Marston matts.
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Thanks for the video. I visited Normandy in 2018 but I am sorry that I did not know about the Airborne Museum.
What an awesome video and wonderful narration. Thank you Paul.
Caen in France there is a big museum about the D Day Normandy operation. Gliders in original exposed. Everybody MUST see. I met a not too young American lady with her family in the museum who told me that her father partecipated in the invasion. Very emotional
sorry-sorry-sorry. I wrote my testimonial first and saw Paolo’s film after.
My father started his service in gliders but after crash landing a few times he became a paratrooper. He said he would rather jump out of an airplane than crash land in one. 13th Airborne. Almost lost both legs dut to trench rot in one of the cigarette camps in the winter of 44/45. Eighteen months in hospitals they saved his legs. The VA then denied his anxiety claim. He made it however and made a life for himseand five kids. Woodworking/furniture genious and one of the most intelligent human beings I’ve ever known. RIP Papa Joe
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That’s why they call them the Greatest Generation.
Paul: This is a very nice video and your comment on “allowing at least three days” is right on! The tour buses do not allow much time to allow you to take in what emotions may come over you once you set foot on the Cemetery. My first visit was in September '94 and the only building other than the superintendent’s residence was the administration office. In about 2002 they started building the Interpretive Center and later added the large museum near the approach to the main entrance. I worked for a major airline from '69-'02 and after my first visit to Normandy, being an ongoing student of history, I made many trips to other sites in the Normandy region as well as Northern France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. My interactions with the elder French citizens who had specific tasks on D-Day and beyond is priceless. I met one council member in Sainte-Mere-Eglise who proudly claimed his job was to blow up three telephone poles on D-Day…he was 11 years old on that day. I was also able to develop a friendship with Phil Jutras, a former Army warrant officer who was in charge of supplies and headquartered in SME after July 14th, 1944. He became good friends with the Castels who owned a dress shop which is now a cafe at the corner of Place du 6 Juin diagonally opposite from the Airborne Museum. After he retired as a state senator from Maine, he returned to SME and became the curator of the Airborne Museum!
Having been there as often as I have, I have a TON of stories of the people I’ve met and experiences I’ve had - including having brought all our grandchildren to visit these sites over the years so they can carry on the story of the Greatest Generation’s accomplishments.
So for now, I yield the balance of my time!
Ken Delfino
United States Navy (Ret)
Keystone, SD
Hi Jim: I was not an aviator…bad eyesight and while I would never have a problem taking off, I would be most concerned with the landing. Oh yes, I know I’d eventually land, but how I’d accomplish that was the main concern!
I’m glad that you and your fellow aviation historians have made the trips you’ve made. Over the years I’ve remained in contact with the first assistant superintendent at Normandy. The day I met him was his second day on the job after a 25-year Army career. It was fitting for him since his mom had Norman roots and lived in the region. He was born in southern Mississippi and called everyone who lived north of I-10 a “Damn Yankee”! Note: there’s not a whole lotta ‘feet dry’ between the Gulf of Mexico and I-10!!!
He was able to take me to those other incredible sites that tour buses did not visit at the time; the bridge at La Fiere, the church at Angoville-au-Plain where German AND American medics took care of the wounded on both sides during a battle and also at Graignes where the civilians and our wounded prisoners were murdered by the SS.
If any of you are golfers, the next time you go you should consider visiting the Omaha Beach Golf Course which is in Port-en-Bessin. It used to be a huge cattle ranch, but in the early 2000s, the then Normandy superintendent, Gene Dellinger convinced the owner to convert it to a golf course and he did. It’s a beautiful layout of two courses with some fantastic views. Every hole is named after an allied leader and hole #1 is named after Eisenhower.
Like you, I’ve gone on trips with fellow Viet Nam veterans and we’d return our van full of crumbs of bread as we’d eat our way across the country from one battleground and cemetery to another on ‘guy’ trips!
I hope you are able to continue these journeys.
Ken Delfino
“BottomFeeder”
United States Navy (Ret)
Are you referring to Airborne glider trooper glider training at LM? The majority of the glider pilots were trained at South Plain Army Air Field, SPAAF, Lubbock TX. Early on their were other training fields but the majority trained at SPAAF. Many of them received their tactical training at LM. In the Fall of 44 power pilots were trained to fly gliders at SPAAF and LM. They did train the airborne out of Pope Field & LM. And Airborne were used in testing gliders. The most famous was the dual tow where airborne jumped from a C-47 as well as the gliders on tow all at the same time. This was to determine if concentrating the airborne drop would keep them closer together.
https://www.ww2gp.org/training/gliderParatroopDrop.php
There were CG-4A glider frames at LM for airborne glider troops to practice getting in and out of the gliders. LM was best know too for testing the gliders.
It is the the MTO in preparation for Southern France. 
Canard palnes are not what you want to fly into bad weather.
"A search started immediately but was called off temporarily due to bad weather. "
The forward surface is not a canard, it is a forward wing. A canard is a movable surface, which on the Piaggio it does not. That surface has nothing to do with flying in bad weather. I have over 3000 hours in the Piaggio and it handles bad weather just fine as long as you mind the planes’s limitations, just like any other plane certified for IFR weather.
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sorry I didn’t see the comment of Matt W.
The forward wing is mounted at a slightly greater angle of attack than the main wing so that it will stall first and allow the nose to drop. It also has flaps on the trailing edge to counter the nose-down pitching tendency of the flaps on the main wing. It may not be affected by the weather like the canard on a Rutan-designed aircraft, but it certainly works like one. So, I’d say the front wing is a canard. But since the plane also has a conventional tail, it’s not a true canard aircraft like the Beech Starship.
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Since there is no pitch control on the front wing and the pitch control is on the aft horizontal stabilizer, the front wing is not a canard.
Maybe you can call it a biplane with huge stagger.
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C’mon guys. Let’s be a bit more forgiving on the terminology policing. Your not going to like it when the grammer and spelling wars comence.
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Well, the forward CANARD is not there to just look cool. I just remember that the airfoils at lower Reynolds numbers (like turning onto a final approach) can be seriously affected by rain. I doubt if it could be causal but it might be a big distraction if it suddenly lost lift.
Your comment on it being a biplane is technically correct. I did training in the airplane so I can tell anyone the stall characteristics are pretty benign since the FORWARD WING stalls first then the nose will drop straight ahead with no tendency to drop a wing. By the time you get to the stall point the plane shakes and vibrates well above stall giving the pilot plenty of warning the plane doesn’t like what you are doing. Stalls are so unevenful (just like a Cherokee) that there is no stick shaker or pusher on the Piaggio Avanti. As soon as you reduce angle of attack the plane is flying again. Yes flying in rain can affect the forward wing but if you are that slow you have other issues to worry about.
The way the article is written it implies a single pilot in the plane. Although the Avanti is certified as a single pilot airplane it is a lot of plane for just one pilot to handle especially if something goes wrong. We’ll just have to wait until the investigation is complete to find out what happened. RIP.
My thought exactly.
And yet, it has a cannard.
Agreed. But even Piaggio does not call the forward wing a canard.
Well, there is data, and most of that data describes a normal descent until the plane was out over the ocean. If the timeline is correct, this mishap occurred at night. During a rapid descent, as the plane neared the water, there was a momentary pitch upward, then a resumption of the rapid descent to impact at speeds (Groundspeeds…) which were not in a stall range. No distress calls noted by investigators, and it appears weather was not a factor. I’ll suggest that flying over open oceans at night looks like the inside of a cow. Unless you’re sharp on the gauges, or the moon is full and bright, you won’t have any horizon to reference.
I’d like to get the weather source if you have that information. The initial incident brief didn’t mention weather as a factor. That region is near the Tropical Convergence Zone, so there are storms regularly developing. Do you know what the forecast was? METAR, PIREPS?
The 3 surface design used for the Avanti is much more stable than a 2 surface canard, hence the certification. The weather was described as “benign” at the time of the crash.
I like what you did there.