The Cramlington Cramcraft was a simple, single-seat, primary training glider, designed and built in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

by Cramlington Aircraft Ltd. at

Cramlington Aerodrome Cramlington Aerodrome was a military airfield established in Northumberland during the World War I, First World War. It became a civil airfield serving the Tyneside area of north-east England and operated until 1935, when it was replaced by Wools ...

in 1930. About three were built.

Design and development

The Cramcraft was a single-seat primary glider trainer, aimed at newcomers to the sport and designed with simplicity, robustness and low cost in mind rather than aerodynamic performance. It was a wooden aircraft with wings of rectangular planform built around two box spars which, like the ribs, were made from

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

and

plywood Plywood is a composite material manufactured from thin layers, or "plies", of wood veneer that have been stacked and glued together. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured boards, which include plywood, medium-density fibreboa ...

Aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement aroun ...

s reached to the

wing tip A wing tip (or wingtip) is the part of the wing that is most distant from the fuselage of a fixed-wing aircraft. Because the wing tip shape influences the size and drag of the wingtip vortices, tip design has produced a diversity of sha ...

s but no airbrakes were fitted. The tail surfaces were carried on a narrow, flat boom formed by two parallel beams from the wing leading edge, braced together and fabric covered. Both the boom-mounted

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabilizer, is a small lift (force), lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters ...

and

elevators An elevator (American English) or lift (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English) is a machine that vertically transports people or freight between levels. They are typically powered by electric motors that drive tracti ...

it carried were rectangular in plan, though the latter had a cutout for rudder movement and extended beyond the tailplane. The rudder was mounted on a very narrow fin and initially extended further below the boom than above but was later modified so that little projected below and the upper profile became more rounded. Initially the pilot's seat was mounted well below the wing

leading edge The leading edge is the part of the wing that first contacts the air;Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 305. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. alternatively it is the foremost edge of an airfoil sectio ...

on the narrow edge of a board or plank. The under edge of this board was shaped to curve up forwards and served as a skid. The board was fixed to the wing spars by two pairs of parallel V-form

lift strut In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of struts, which act in ...

s, the angle between them being unusually small. This arrangement left the pilot completely exposed and a later version placed him in a short nacelle. Both wings and tail were further wire braced, with

lift wires In aeronautics, bracing comprises additional structural members which stiffen the functional airframe to give it rigidity and strength under load. Bracing may be applied both internally and externally, and may take the form of struts, which act in ...

from the fuselage and above from a pair of inverted V-struts mounted on the two boom beams.

Operational history

The first serious testing was on 5 October 1930. Several pilots flew the Cramcraft, though no flights of more than 30 seconds were achieved that day. It is probable that three Cramcrafts were built, at least one of them flying with the

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

Gliding Club and another with the

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

club, both near to

Cramlington Cramlington is a town and civil parish in Northumberland. It is north of Newcastle upon Tyne. The name suggests a probable founding by the Danes or Anglo-Saxons. The population was 28,843 as of 2021 census data from Northumberland County Cou ...

Specifications (early version)

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book , title= British Gliders and Sailplanes, last=Ellison, first=Norman, year=1971, publisher=A & C Black Ltd, location=London , isbn=978-0-7136-1189-2 , pages=102, 245 {{cite journal, date=17 July 1931, title=The Latest Cramcraft, journal=Sailplane and Glider, volume=2, issue=1, pages=11, url=http://www.lakesgc.co.uk/mainwebpages/Sailplane%20&%20Glider%201930%20-%201955/Volume%202%20No.%201%20Jul%2017%201931.pdf, url-status=dead, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930180313/http://www.lakesgc.co.uk/mainwebpages/Sailplane%20%26%20Glider%201930%20-%201955/Volume%202%20No.%201%20Jul%2017%201931.pdf, archivedate=30 September 2011 {{cite journal, date=3 October 1930, title=A North Country glider, journal=Sailplane and Glider, volume=1, issue=5, pages=36, url=http://www.lakesgc.co.uk/mainwebpages/Sailplane%20&%20Glider%201930%20-%201955/Volume%201%20No.%205%20Oct%203%201930.pdf, url-status=dead, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930180539/http://www.lakesgc.co.uk/mainwebpages/Sailplane%20%26%20Glider%201930%20-%201955/Volume%201%20No.%205%20Oct%203%201930.pdf, archivedate=30 September 2011 {{cite journal, date=17 October 1930, title=More news about the Cramcraft, journal=Sailplane and Glider, volume=1, issue=7, pages=54, url=http://www.lakesgc.co.uk/mainwebpages/Sailplane%20&%20Glider%201930%20-%201955/Volume%201%20No.%207%20Oct%2017%201930.pdf, url-status=dead, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930180613/http://www.lakesgc.co.uk/mainwebpages/Sailplane%20%26%20Glider%201930%20-%201955/Volume%201%20No.%207%20Oct%2017%201930.pdf, archivedate=30 September 2011 {{cite journal, date=3 October 1930, title=Cramlington advertisement, journal=Sailplane and Glider, volume=1, issue=7, pages=51, url=http://www.lakesgc.co.uk/mainwebpages/Sailplane%20&%20Glider%201930%20-%201955/Volume%201%20No.%207%20Oct%2017%201930.pdf, url-status=dead, archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930180613/http://www.lakesgc.co.uk/mainwebpages/Sailplane%20%26%20Glider%201930%20-%201955/Volume%201%20No.%207%20Oct%2017%201930.pdf, archivedate=30 September 2011 1930s British sailplanes Aircraft first flown in 1930