The Frankfort Cinema was a sailplane manufactured in the United States in the 1930s and 40s and which was used by the United States Army Air Corps as a training glider under the designation TG-1. It was a high-wing, strut-braced design with a fully enclosed cabin. Originally designed as a single-seater, a two-seat version designated the Cinema II was produced soon afterwards, and this design was put forward when the Army issued a requirement for training gliders. At the same time, the company was awarded production contracts for transport gliders, the CG-1 and CG-2.
However, Frankfort was unable to deliver the required TG-1s on schedule, and when they were supplied, they failed structural testing, leading the Army to cancel not only this order, but orders for the transport aircraft as well. The TG-1 designation continued to be applied, however, to civilian Cinemas that were impressed into Army service.
Read more about Frankfort Cinema: Aircraft On Display, Specifications (Cinema II)
Famous quotes containing the word cinema:
“I rather think the cinema will die. Look at the energy being exerted to revive it—yesterday it was color, today three dimensions. I don’t give it forty years more. Witness the decline of conversation. Only the Irish have remained incomparable conversationalists, maybe because technical progress has passed them by.”
—Orson Welles (1915–1984)