Pratt-Read TG-32

The Pratt-Read TG-32 was a 1940s American military training glider, designed and built by the Gould Aero Division of Pratt, Read & Company for the United States Navy.

Development
The Pratt-Read PR-G1 was designed to meet a United States Navy requirement for a two-seat training glider to enable the training of Navy and Marine Corps glider pilots for the Pacific campaign. The Navy ordered 100 gliders with the designation LNE. The PR-G1 was a monoplane glider and had a fabric-covered steel tube fuselage and wooden wings and tail.

When the decision was made not use gliders in the Pacific campaign, 73 of the Navy aircraft were transferred to the United States Army Air Forces with the designation TG-32. The Air Force did not use the gliders and they were stored until the end of the war and were sold on the civilian market.

In the 1950s the glider was used in a high altitude weather and flight condition investigation called the Sierra Wave project. In 1952 a TG-32 set a new world altitude record of 44255 ft for two-seat gliders, a record held for 54 years. The altitude gain of 34426 ftachieved on this flight still stands as a US National Record

Variants

 * PR-G1
 * Company designation, one prototype built with Naval designation XLNE-1.


 * LNE-1
 * United States Navy designation, 100 built.


 * TG-32
 * United States Army Air Forces designation for 73 gliders transferred from the Navy.

Operators

 * United States Army Air Forces
 * United States Navy
 * United States Navy

Aircraft on display
A number of the gliders are on public display in the United States.