Acquiring tugs to tow the CG-4s up for training was almost as difficult as getting the gliders. One method of getting the most from each C-47 sortie was to haul two WACOs under double tow.

Chosen as the US Army's primary tactical transport glider, the WACO CG-4A also had to serve in a training role. This early example has jettisonable main wheels.

The tremendous pressure to create a combat glider force meant that in 1942 training sailplanes were being acquired as quickly as the nation's producers could turn them out. An inspirational banner hangs over new-built TG-1s at Frankfort's Joliet, Indiana, plant.

The flight line at Twenty-Nine Paints Air Academy, Condor Field, in the southern California desert, in the summer of 1942. The fleet is made up mostly of TG-4As, plus some pre-war civilian types.

A rare colour image of the Laister-Kauffman TG-4A showing early training colours.

A Schweizer TG-3A is shown in the simplified silver dope finish which was adopted in wartime in place of the more colourful and traditional Army training scheme. The glider was an all-wood and fabric variant of the TG-2.

Intended as a combat glider, the nine-seat WACO CG-3A entered production before the Army decided to concentrate on CG-4s. The CG-3s became trainers.

TG-11, a record-setting Goppingen 3 Minimoa was previously owned by personnel closely associated with the Army glider programme and so, unlike the others, found its way to Wright Field to be photographed.

Three TG-2s are given a triple aero-tow by a Stinson O-49. Such civilian tow-planes were used until Army models were provided.

A glider pilot recruiting image based on a picture of a Schweizer TG-2 flying over the southern California desert. Such sailplanes seemed a natural starting point for combat glider pilots, but this was soon shown to be misguided.

A staged photo of a civilian instructor and two Army student glider pilots beside a TG-2.

Major Fred Dent prepares for a flight with General Hap Arnold (standing) in the US Army's first glider, the Schweizer TG-2. The event was the National Soaring Contest in September 1941 at Elmira, New York, site of the US Army's first glider training.

A press day at Twenty-Nine Palms in 1942: a trio of TG-2s stands ready for tow off the dry lakebed adjacent to the field.

TG-6s were derived from the Taylorcraft L-2 lightplane.

The prototype Briegleb TG-13A was also flown at Twenty-Nine Palms where it was reportedly wrecked.

Bowlus TG-12 in flight test at Twenty-Nine Palms in the summer of 1942.

An unknown pilot poses for a 'hero picture’ beside a TG-5 at the John H Wilson Glider School in Lamesa, Texas.

The third of the three-seaters was the TG-8, showing its heritage with the famous Piper L-4.