“I was excited and thought about this,” and Gofourth said he came to ask if he could have the Giro-Glider, “put it back together” and donate it to the Aviation Museum. “I talked to Bruce Dickenson and asked him if the museum would take this relic, and he said okay.”Gofourth said that the pioneering Culbertson family deserves “thanks for their generosity.” The Giro-Glider was sold to a local collector, and the income put into the Aviation Museum’s account. “I explained to Charlie that we didn’t have room for it but we can find a home for it, so if we could find someone” who would purchase the Giro-Glider the funds could be donated to the museum, said Dickenson, an Aviation Museum of Santa Paula Board Director. “It was very generous of the Culbertson family and thoughtful of Charlie to think of our museum.”
Giro-Glider: Unusual vintage aircraft benefits Aviation Museum of SP
November 21, 2007
Santa Paula News
A one-man Bentley Giro-Glider left in a barn for probably four decades was a boon to the Aviation Museum of Santa Paula when the rare glider was donated to the museum.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesA one-man Bentley Giro-Glider left in a barn for probably four decades was a boon to the Aviation Museum of Santa Paula when the rare glider was donated to the museum. The donation came about in a way that was as airy as the power source of the Giro-Glider: Charles Gofourth visited the Culbertson Ranch where Bob Culbertson’s Giro-Glider - a single-seat rotary-kite vehicle - had been since it was purchased in the 1960s. When Gofourth asked if the Giro-Glider was ever flown, Bob Culbertson laughed and admitted that its “flights” had been limited to being towed around the Toland Park area, with little lift involved. When Gofourth asked what had happened to the unusual kit aircraft, Culbertson said it was in a barn on the property.
