A bit of what I think is incorrect information there, which may help explain things. AFAIK only a single glider was towed behind a tug aircraft - having 3 being towed at once seems like a nightmare. Hence those 3 wires are for a single intercom, which makes sense for a standard 2 way system with a common ground. As for such missions not being successful, on the contrary, glider dropping of troops formed a vital part of the battle of Normandy as well as various other major offensives. It was a reliable way to drop troops by air - troops which didn't need to be parachute trained. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airspeed_Horsa Chris On Fri, 29 Jun 2018 22:09 Bob Blick, wrote: > The story I hear is that this rope was used to tow three gliders full of > soldiers behind a DC-3 over France near the end of WW2. The gliders cut > loose one at a time and had soft(crash) landings behind enemy lines. The > rope has three insulated wires embedded in it that were used for > communication between tow plane and gliders. A crazy wartime mission that > probably wasn't very successful. > > The wires are real strange. At first glance they look like conventional > 16ga stranded power wire, but they are more like insulated coax with no > center conductor, just filler inside the braid. > > That's all I know. The dollar coin is used for scale, just to confuse > everyone. Dollar coins aren't really used very much, except when given to > me as change in my local parking garage :) The rope is about 18mm diamete= r. > > Happy Friday, everybody! > > Bob-- > http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .