New
World War II Glider Museum Celebrates "Silent Wings" on the
High Plains of Texas
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from page 8)
The visitor is welcomed outside the museum by a stone sculpture of the vertical stabilizer and rudder of a glider, and other stylish brick and stone work that was unfinished when I visited in late 2002. One enters the museum through the main entrance to the former terminal, directly under the old control tower. [My earliest recollections of the terminal are of watching DC-3s (maybe former C-47s?) arriving and departing with elegantly dressed passengers!) The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., except for Sunday hours from 1 p.m. 5 p.m. Admission is a very reasonable $4 for adults, $3 for seniors (age 60+), $3 for children 12 and under, and free to veteran glider pilots and museum members. There is ample free parking right outside the front door, or you can taxi your aircraft almost to the door! Museum membership is available to individuals at Bronze, Silver, and Gold Wings levels ($35, $50, and $100/year, respectively). Corporate memberships are sought at One Star through Four Star levels ($500-5,000). You may reach the museum by telephone at (806) 775-2047 or fax at (806) 775-3133. The postal address is 5401 North Martin Luther King Blvd., Route 3, Box 393, Lubbock, TX 79403. The physical address is 6202 N. Interstate Highway 27. The museum is accessed easily by taking the clearly-marked exits from I-27 to the General Aviation area on the west side of Lubbock International Airport.
The Silent Wings Museum has a fledgling website with some interesting historical information about the glider program, a few photographs, and lists of the towplanes, training aircraft, and service gliders built. However, many key areas of the website are still "under construction" as of this writing in January, 2003. I urge the reader to check out the site and see what has been added since. The address is: http://www.silentwingsmuseum.com/. If you find yourself in the vicinity of Lubbock, a visit to the Silent Wings Museum would be well worth the effort. You will leave with new respect for the gliders and the crews who took those fabric-covered flying sleds on their one-way trips into combat. I also hope that this article will provoke SAA members who were glider designers, builders, pilots, crew, or "cargo" to write about their recollections for this magazine.
- Hunter Heath III
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