Building And Flying the Waco CG-4A Combat Glider

Waco CG-4A Plans & 3-Views

Plans for a remote control version of the Waco CG-4A are available from a couple of different sources, or you can just have a one of the 3-views below enlarged at your local copy shop and work from that, depending upon what your needs are and what you intend to build your CG-4A from.

I purchased the RCM plans for the CG-4A but was disappointed with them. They are not as accurate in terms of scale dimensions as I was hoping, and since I am building from EPP, I really didn't need the detail of the built-up construction. RCM also took a fairly long time--three weeks--to have them sent out to me. It would have been faster, cheaper and easier for me to simply have the Eaton 3-view below enlarged at my local copy shop, and to have built my EPP templates from that. Oh well, live and learn!

Waco CG-4A 3-Views:

John Eaton's Golden Era Model Service Waco CG-4A 3-View

This is one of the best 3-views I've come across yet for the Waco CG-4A, because it's done entirely in unfilled line art and it blows up very well (minimal anti-aliasing). I've compared it against the dimensions of the fullsize CG-4A, and everything pencils out perfectly. If you're thinking to build from EPP (and thus only really need accurate outlines), I would suggest using this 3-view in lieu of either of the plans listed below, as it is much more accurate in terms of scale dimensions. You can download the image and take it to your local copy shop to be enlarged to suit your needs.
David Eckert's Waco CG-4A 3-View

These are some beautiful drawings of the Waco CG-4A "Fighting Falcon", the lead glider in the D-Day invasion. The drawings really provide nice scale detail information, especially concerning the size and location of insignia, color schemes, and panel lines. The dimensions for these drawings also pencil out perfectly. That said, use these drawings for scale detail information, and the Eaton drawings above for your templates. I suspect that the simple line art of the Eaton drawings might be easier to have enlarged at a copy shop for template purposes.

Waco CG-4A Plans:

FlyRC Waco CG-4A plans

Just stumbled across these plans recently and they look really nice! Designed to be built out of blue foam to a 65" span, they seem nice for a standoff scale model. Includes details on setting up an aerotow release as well as the powered PG-2 version. You can download a printable PDF or purchase a plan from the site. Looks good to me!
RCM's plans for the Waco PG-2

The PG-2 was an experimental powered version of the CG-4A that never saw combat. If you choose to build from these plans, you simply omit adding the engines to the wings--no big deal at all. These plans appear to create some nice-looking CG-4As, and if you're planning to build your plane from wood then you'll probably want to check them out. The cost is $9.00 + shipping as of this writing (March 2003).
- NOTE #1: These plans are not quite accurate in terms of scale dimensions. According to my caculations, the fuselage is too broad and the horizontal stabilizer is too narrow. Make sure to refer to the 3-views above if scale accuracy is your goal.
- NOTE #2: RCM also offers a set of plans titled "CG-4A", but these feature an engine in the nose of the aircraft (?) and do not look anywhere near as scale or as good as the PG-2 plans above. Make sure you order the correct set!!

There are undoubtably other plans and 3-views for the Waco CG-4A floating around out there, but I've yet to come across them online. If you know of other CG-4A plans or 3-views besides those described above and would like them to be linked to from this page, please contact me to arrange it.