A U.S. Navy XLRQ-1 glider at the Bristol Aeronautical Corporation in Bristol, Connecticut, 1942. Glider assault was not tactically feasible against small, heavily defended islands in the Pacific, not enough gliders were arriving from factories and too many pilots were being assigned to the glider program. Therefore the program was scrapped in 1943. Although the U.S. Navy ordered four XLRQ-1 prototypes, only two were built (BuNos 11561 and 11562). The glider had a retractable landing gear and the wing roots provided lateral stability on the water. |