WWII troop transport plane will return to Normandy

GENESEO, New York — The next time the American military transport plane known as Whiskey 7 drops its paratroopers over Normandy, France, it will be for a commemoration instead of an invasion. “There are very few of these planes still flying, and this plane was very significant on D-Day,” said Erin Vitale, chairwoman of the Return to Normandy Project. “It’s going to be a huge challenge.” Among the 21 men it carried in 1944 was 20-year-old Leslie Palmer Cruise Jr., who also will make the return trip to France, his fifth, and be reunited with the craft — once it’s on the ground. “They would have had probably a radio beacon receiver and a lot of dead reckoning.” There is still no autopilot, said Wadsworth’s daughter, Naomi, who will be among five pilots — one including her brother, Craig — taking turns at the controls on the way to Europe. “Our turn came and the quivering craft gathered momentum along the path right behind the plane in front.” The airplane’s engines were so loud he had to shout even to talk with the paratrooper next to him, he said, and the scenery through its square windows looked like shadows in the dark.