Blog about 1945 crash brings back cousin's memories
September/20/2008 08:18 PM Filed in: Air show
history
I recently received an email in response to a blog I
posted back in February about a
fatal airplane crash at an Army Air Forces Fair on
Wright Field in 1945. The sender was Violet
McIntyre, cousin of Army Air Forces Capt.
William Glasgow, the pilot and decorated war
veteran who died in the tragic crash.
Violet herself wrote about the crash in a guest column for the Niagara Gazette of Niagara Falls, NY, on Veterans Day in 2004. Here is an excerpt from her column:
"... Bill joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1942 and was sent overseas in 1943.
"As a member of the 85th Fighter Squadron of the Western Desert air Force, he served during many years of bitter fighting in the Mediterranean area. When he was just 27 years old, he was already a veteran of 80 combat missions over Germany. In 1943, an anti-aircraft shell hit his plane and he was forced to bail out.
“Taken to a German military hospital, he was unsuccessful in his first attempt to escape, but on a second effort, he evaded guards and despite great suffering and pain from his wounds, made his way back to Allied lines. It took him 12 days to find his unit, traveling over unfamiliar and difficult terrain.
"Bill returned to the U.S. as one of our city’s most decorated heroes, holding the Distinguished Flying Cross, Silver Star and Presidential Citation, as well as other awards. Our joy in his safe return and in his accomplishments ended at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, just three days before Memorial Day in 1945 when an experimental plane (a Curtiss XP-55 Ascender) Bill was piloting in a War Bond Aviation Show crashed to the ground after passing a grandstand containing 70,000 people.
"Bill’s fellow pilots in the same air show said they believed he tried very hard to land the plane on Airport Road away from the crowd. We were overwhelmed with sadness when we learned later that a car had just been turning around on that road, so when the plane crashed in a nearby ditch, flames spewed from the plane, killing the father and injuring several others in the family. Three others died from their injuries a few days later.
"This tragedy was further compounded when a letter came just this week, 60 years after the crash, from Sandy Begg, a cousin of ours in Britain. Formerly a pilot himself, he had recently bought the book, “Fighters, An Illustrated Anatomy of the World’s Fighters,” by Mike Spick. It stated that back in 1939, Curtiss Aircraft Company, in an attempt to meet a USAAC specification for a new fighter, developed an experimental plane (the XP-55 Curtiss Ascender.) Unfortunately, stall characteristics were poor and the first prototype was lost on Nov. 15, 1943, when it pitched downwards through 180 degrees, causing fuel starvation for the engine, which cut out.
"Trials continued until 1945 but it was evident that any advantages of the unconventional layout were not enough to justify further development. Main faults were an excessively long take-off run and poor stalling characteristics. Then he quoted this: 'The project was abandoned after the third prototype crashed at a military air show on May 27, 1945.' ”
She went on to add that memorial services were held for Glasgow simultaneously at his church in Niagara Falls and at Wright Field. His pallbearers included Maj. Richard "Dick" Bong and Capt. Dominic "Don" Gentile, decorated aces themselves. They were following him in their own planes for a series of flybys when he crashed.
Violet herself wrote about the crash in a guest column for the Niagara Gazette of Niagara Falls, NY, on Veterans Day in 2004. Here is an excerpt from her column:
"... Bill joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1942 and was sent overseas in 1943.
"As a member of the 85th Fighter Squadron of the Western Desert air Force, he served during many years of bitter fighting in the Mediterranean area. When he was just 27 years old, he was already a veteran of 80 combat missions over Germany. In 1943, an anti-aircraft shell hit his plane and he was forced to bail out.
“Taken to a German military hospital, he was unsuccessful in his first attempt to escape, but on a second effort, he evaded guards and despite great suffering and pain from his wounds, made his way back to Allied lines. It took him 12 days to find his unit, traveling over unfamiliar and difficult terrain.
"Bill returned to the U.S. as one of our city’s most decorated heroes, holding the Distinguished Flying Cross, Silver Star and Presidential Citation, as well as other awards. Our joy in his safe return and in his accomplishments ended at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, just three days before Memorial Day in 1945 when an experimental plane (a Curtiss XP-55 Ascender) Bill was piloting in a War Bond Aviation Show crashed to the ground after passing a grandstand containing 70,000 people.
"Bill’s fellow pilots in the same air show said they believed he tried very hard to land the plane on Airport Road away from the crowd. We were overwhelmed with sadness when we learned later that a car had just been turning around on that road, so when the plane crashed in a nearby ditch, flames spewed from the plane, killing the father and injuring several others in the family. Three others died from their injuries a few days later.
"This tragedy was further compounded when a letter came just this week, 60 years after the crash, from Sandy Begg, a cousin of ours in Britain. Formerly a pilot himself, he had recently bought the book, “Fighters, An Illustrated Anatomy of the World’s Fighters,” by Mike Spick. It stated that back in 1939, Curtiss Aircraft Company, in an attempt to meet a USAAC specification for a new fighter, developed an experimental plane (the XP-55 Curtiss Ascender.) Unfortunately, stall characteristics were poor and the first prototype was lost on Nov. 15, 1943, when it pitched downwards through 180 degrees, causing fuel starvation for the engine, which cut out.
"Trials continued until 1945 but it was evident that any advantages of the unconventional layout were not enough to justify further development. Main faults were an excessively long take-off run and poor stalling characteristics. Then he quoted this: 'The project was abandoned after the third prototype crashed at a military air show on May 27, 1945.' ”
She went on to add that memorial services were held for Glasgow simultaneously at his church in Niagara Falls and at Wright Field. His pallbearers included Maj. Richard "Dick" Bong and Capt. Dominic "Don" Gentile, decorated aces themselves. They were following him in their own planes for a series of flybys when he crashed.
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