[4] The 60 ft long runway was to be constructed from tables and the glider was to be launched using a pulley system based on a falling metal bathtub full of concrete, using a gravity-assisted acceleration to 30 mph (50 km/h).

Prison sleeping bags of blue and white checked cotton were used to skin the glider, and German ration millet was boiled and used as a form of dope to seal the cloth pores.

The take-off was scheduled for the spring of 1945 during an air raid blackout but by then the Allied guns could be heard and the war's outcome was fairly certain.

The British escape officer decided that the glider should be available for use in case the SS ordered the massacre of the prisoners as a way to get a message out to approaching American troops.

Assigned to the task force that liberated the castle, war correspondent Lee Carson entered Colditz on 15 April 1945 and took the only photograph of the glider completed in the attic.

[7] Although the Colditz Cock never flew in real life, the concept was fictionalized, depicting a successful flight and escape, in the 1971 TV film The Birdmen starring Doug McClure, Chuck Connors, René Auberjonois and Richard Basehart.

One episode of the BBC TV series Colditz depicts the decision to build a glider as an escape attempt.

The glider was test flown successfully in 2000 by John Lee on its first attempt at RAF Odiham with Best, Goldfinch and about a dozen of the veterans who had worked on the original more than 55 years earlier proudly looking on.

The Channel 4 material was edited to 60 minutes and shown in the US in 2001 as "Nazi Prison Escape" on the Nova television series.