Northwest Aeronautical Company was formed when businessman John E. Parker joined forces with Northwest Airlines during World War II to build large gliders for the U.S. Army Air Force. The company received an initial contract to build thirty CG-4A gliders, a number later increased to three hundred.
The motorless aircraft was made of steel tubing, wood and fabric, was 50 feet long with a wingspan of almost eighy-four feet, and weighed just 3,000 pounds. It could carry thirteen fully-equipped soldiers. Larger gliders, the CG-13A, with the capacity to carry a light truck and thirty soldiers were also manufactured in Minnesota.
The gliders, flown at great risk to those onboard, were used in both Europe and Pacific Theaters of Operation during the war, paving the way for key invasions. This photograph shows a glider being towed by a B-23 plane over Wold Chamberlain Field in Minneapolis.
Creator: George E. Luxton
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society
Date: 1943
Identifer: location HE1.22 p18
