The Dart Cambridge was a single-seat competition

sailplane A glider or sailplane is a type of glider aircraft used in the leisure activity and sport of gliding (also called soaring). This unpowered aircraft can use naturally occurring currents of rising air in the atmosphere to gain altitude. Sailplan ...

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 ...

in the 1930s. A development of the Grunau Baby, only two were built, flying with gliding clubs.

Design and development

The Cambridge first appeared as the Zander and Weyl Cambridge, making its first flight a few months before Zander and Weyl Ltd. changed its name to Dart Aircraft Ltd. Like the Slingsby Kite 1, the Cambridge was an updated version of the successful and influential Grunau Baby. It retained the Baby wing with its thick, high lift

airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is a streamlined body that is capable of generating significantly more Lift (force), lift than Drag (physics), drag. Wings, sails and propeller blades are examples of airfoils. Foil (fl ...

, though slightly increased in span, introduced a smoother monocoque

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

, a

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 ...

of greater span and a new

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

. The wings of the Cambridge had a constant chord to about half span, outboard of which the

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 ...

was slightly swept and the

trailing edge The trailing edge of an aerodynamic surface such as a wing is its rear edge, where the airflow separated by the leading edge meets.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 521. Aviation Supplies & Academics, 1997. ...

elliptically tapered. The

ailerons 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 around ...

were hinged on the outboard sections at a slight angle to the main spar, allowing them to be of almost constant chord. No flaps or airbrakes were fitted. The wings were mounted on a raised part of the

just behind the

cockpit A cockpit or flight deck is the area, on the front part of an aircraft, spacecraft, or submersible, from which a pilot controls the vehicle. The cockpit of an aircraft contains flight instruments on an instrument panel, and the controls th ...

, with single

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 from the lower fuselage to the main spar at about one quarter span. The revised tailplane had swept leading edges and the

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 ...

had forward-swept trailing edges, as on the Baby, but their extended span made it more pointed in plan. The fin was very narrow, with the rudder and elevator hinges at the same fuselage position. The rudder was almost semi-circular. The smooth

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 ...

monocoque fuselage became more slender aft of the pylon carrying the wing. The cockpit was open. A combination of a single, short, fuselage-mounted skid and integral tail bumper served as an undercarriage. The Cambridge first flew on 1 December 1935. A second aircraft, known as the Cambridge 2, was a little lighter and had larger ailerons.

Operational history

The first Cambridge was owned by the

Duke of Grafton Duke of Grafton is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1675 by Charles II of England for Henry FitzRoy, his second illegitimate son by the Duchess of Cleveland. The most notable duke of Grafton was Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke o ...

, who was one of the founding members of the Cambridge University Gliding Club (CUGC). It was flown as a club aircraft and was entered by them into the 1939 National Soaring Contests, though without making much impression. It was registered by the club after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in the brief period from 1949 when UK gliders appeared on the CAA register. It was de-registered by CUGC in 1953, by which time gliders no longer required CAA registration. Its later history is uncertain; it was at

RAF Dishforth Royal Air Force Dishforth or more simply RAF Dishforth is a former Royal Air Force station near Thirsk in North Yorkshire, England. Opened in 1936, the base was used as a bomber airfield during the Second World War with both British and Canad ...

for a while and may have been burnt before 1973. The Cambridge 2 was operated by the London Gliding Club who flew it into 6th place in the 1937 National Competitions, though it gained no prizes.

Specifications (Cambridge I)

References

External links

Gōttingen 535 airfoil
{{Dart aircraft 1930s British sailplanes Aircraft first flown in 1935