The Colditz Cock Flies!

[John Dupre]

Just finished watching a wonderful show on American Public Television showing a replica of the Colditz Cock being built and launched from the roof of Colditz Castle. I knew that at least two previous replicas had been built and flown as towed gliders but this one looked to be built as near to the original as possible including doping the fabric with porridge made from Millet. They used radio control to fly it and launched it with a bathtub full of concrete as counterweight. It flew out over the river and landed in the field that was the original target. Unfortunately due to proximity of private property and buildings that have hemmed in the field since the war the pilot had to dump the glider in and it broke up on landing but the major bits remained intact. There is one shot of the glider in the air with castle in the background that I want as a poster. Excellent effort on the part of the whole team which was led by a man whose uncle was a prisoner at Colditz.

[Pat Carry]

It was a very interesting show!

[tom d. friedman]

just finished the book a few weeks ago!! excellent read. no video footage to post??

[Locobuster]

Here's the website for the aforementioned show...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/naziprison/glider.html

and an onlooker's video of the glider in flight...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSHugyLm8u4

Cheers!
Syd