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 Pratt-Read PR-G1 Glider - Seattle, WA
N 47° 31.084 W 122° 17.771
10T E 552988 N 5262977
One of many static aircraft displays located at the Museum of Flight at King County International Airport. Admission fees apply.
Waymark Code: WMVH14
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 04/18/2017
Views: 6
Located at the Museum of Flight are a large number of static aircraft on display. One of them is a Pratt-Read PR-G1 Glider. The Museum of Flight website contains a page devoted to this aircraft and it reads:
In 1942, the Pratt-Read Piano Company was awarded a contract to build 100 two-place training gliders for the U.S. Navy. Despite initial manufacturing difficulties, the Pratt-Read PR-G1 was a robust glider with a fabric-covered steel tube fuselage with exquisitely crafted wooden wings and tail. The PR-G1's were sold as surplus after World War II, and in the early 1950s a couple of them were acquired for a daring investigation of high altitude weather and flight conditions called the Sierra Wave Project, based near the Sierra Nevada mountains in Bishop, California. The inherent strength of the Pratt-Read made it an ideal platform in the high winds and extreme turbulence encountered in the program. In 1952, project pilots Larry Edgar and Harold Klieforth soared to 44,255 feet in a Pratt-Read, setting a new world altitude record for two-place gliders. The record endured for an incredible 54 years, until Steve Fossett and Einar Enevoldson flew over the Argentinean Andes to 50,727 feet in their modified DG-500, the Perlan I glider.
The Museum's Pratt-Read, now on display in the Great Gallery, is painted to represent the U.S. Navy LNE-1 variant.
Type of Aircraft: (make/model): Pratt-Read PR-G1 Glider
Tail Number: (S/N): 13; Registration No. N60353
Construction:: original aircraft
Location (park, airport, museum, etc.): Museum of Flight
inside / outside: inside
Other Information:: Not listed
Access restrictions: Not listed
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Visit Instructions:
Photo of aircraft (required - will be interesting to see if the aircraft is ever repainted or progress if being restored)
Photo of serial number (required unless there is not one or it is a replica)
Photo(s) of any artwork on the aircraft (optional but interesting)
Tell why you are visiting this waymark along with any other interesting facts or personal experiences about the aircraft not already mentioned.
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