Bellingham, Massachusetts – April 1, 1938
On April 1, 1938, Bellingham’s Chief of Police received a report that a glider aircraft had crashed into a tree on Franklin Road in the southern portion of town. Upon arriving at the scene, all he found were a few broken tree branches about 25 feet from the ground. There was no glider in sight.
Upon further investigation, the chief questioned a boy he found in the area, and was told that there had been a glider, but it was a scale model and not one actually flown by a person. The boy related that two men had tied the glider to the bumper of their car and had launched it from the Woonsocket Airport. (Woonsocket and Belling ham border each other.)
After setting the glider loose, the men followed it, one in a car, a second on a motorcycle, until it crash-landed in the tree. The men had retrieved the glider and left prior to the chief’s arrival.
The boy also supplied the name of one of the men who lived in Woonsocket. The chief drove to the Woonsocket Airport, but was told that nobody there knew anything about any glider launch.
The Chief began to wonder if it had all been an April Fool’s joke.
Source:
Providence Journal, “Police Chief Wonders Of Glider Crash Story Is April Fool Joke”, April 2, 1938, pg. 6.
