Slingsby Aviation was a British aircraft manufacturer based in Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, England. The company was founded to design and build gliders and

sailplanes 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 ...

. From the early 1930s to around 1970 it built over 50% of all British club gliders and had success at national and international level competitions. It then produced some powered aircraft, notably the composite built Firefly trainer, before becoming a producer of specialised composite materials and components. The business is now known as Marshall Advanced Composites and produces composite parts for ships, submarines and aircraft. It is a subsidiary of

Marshall of Cambridge Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, a ...

History

The business was founded in Scarborough by Frederick Nicholas Slingsby, an RAF pilot in World War I. In 1920 he bought a partnership in a woodworking and furniture factory in Queen Street, Scarborough. In 1930 Slingsby was one of the founders of the

Scarborough Gliding Club Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, sub ...

. After repairing some of the club's gliders, Slingsby's business built its first aircraft, a German designed RRG Falke which flew in 1931. By late 1933 Slingsby was advertising training gliders for sale. In 1934, encouraged by a local landowner, the business moved to Kirkbymoorside, some 30 miles from Scarborough, operating as Slingsby, Russell & Brown Ltd. As demand for gliders built up, a new factory was needed and built in Welburn, just outside Kirkbymoorside. This opened in July 1939, when Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd was founded. The best selling Slingsby glider in the pre-World War II period was the

Primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Work ...

. During the war Slingsby built parts for other company's aircraft as well as their own

military glider Military gliders (an offshoot of common Glider (sailplane), gliders) have been used by the militaries of various countries for carrying troops (glider infantry) and heavy equipment to a combat zone, mainly during the World War II, Second World Wa ...

, the

Slingsby Hengist The Slingsby Hengist was a British military glider designed and built by Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd. Like other British troop carrying gliders in the Second World War, it was named after military figures whose name began with H, in this case the ...

, though the latter did not see action. Towards the end of the war and afterwards the company produced large numbers of training gliders for the

Air Training Corps The Air Training Corps (ATC) is a British volunteer-military youth organisation. They are sponsored by the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Air Force. The majority of staff are volunteers, and some are paid for full-time work – including ...

(ATC). After the war Slingsby continued to make increasingly refined gliders for civilian use in clubs and competitions. Their greatest success was with the Sky at the 1952 World Gliding Championships, which finished in first, third and fourth place. The later Slingsby Skylark series was their post war best seller. Slingsby began to move toward

glass reinforced plastic Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

(GRP) and metal construction methods, but the company, trading as Slingsby Aircraft Ltd since 1967, went into liquidation in July 1969 following a disastrous fire in the previous November.

After this Slingsby became part of the

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in ...

Group in November 1969, initially as Vickers-Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd, then reverting to the old name of Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd, and original design declined, though they built versions of other aircraft, both powered and unpowered. Slingsby’s last glider, which was also their last original design, was the GRP

Slingsby T.65 The Vickers-Slingsby T-65 Vega is a Glider competition classes#15 metre Class, 15-metre class class Glider (sailplane), glider which first flew on 3 June 1977. Of fibreglass construction, it features linked camber-changing Flap (aircraft), fl ...

Vega. This ceased production in 1982, by which time high performance sailplane design had moved away from the UK. During the upheavals in the British aerospace and marine sector the company became Slingsby Engineering, part of the public/private holding company

British Underwater Engineering British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

(UBE). In July 1982 Slingsby Aviation was set up by, and as part, of Slingsby Engineering. Slingsby Aviation passed from UBE to ML holdings in 1993, then to

Cobham plc Cobham Limited is a British aerospace manufacturing company based in Bournemouth, England. Cobham was originally founded by Sir Alan Cobham as Flight Refuelling Limited (FRL) in 1934. During 1939, British airline Imperial Airways performed ...

in December 1995. Slingsby's last aircraft was the

T-67 Firefly The Slingsby T67 Firefly, originally produced as the Fournier RF-6, is a two-seat aerobatic training aircraft, built by Slingsby Aviation in Kirkbymoorside, Yorkshire, England. It has been used as a trainer aircraft by several armed forces, as ...

, a two-seater military training aircraft, originally a

René Fournier René Fournier (born 18 December 1932) is a French former professional racing cyclist. He rode in three editions of the Tour de France The Tour de France () is an annual men's multiple-stage bicycle race primarily held in France, while ...

design but structurally reworked by Slingsby into a wholly composite machine. At this time Slingsby Aviation employed around 130 people on its 12,220 square metre (131,000 square feet) site. The company had its own airfield at Kirkbymoorside with a 750-metre reinforced grass runway. Slingsby Aviation’s SAH 2200 hovercraft has operated in such varied regions as the Arctic Circle and Africa. Two are seen in the

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film, ''

Die Another Day ''Die Another Day'' is a 2002 spy film and the twentieth film in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. It was produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and directed by Lee Tamahori. The fourth and final film st ...

''. On 10 August 2006 the name of the company was changed to Slingsby Advanced Composites. Since then the company was owned by three individuals and was no longer a part of Cobham plc. On 8 January 2010 the UK company Marshall Aerospace bought Slingsby Advanced Composites Ltd which currently trades as Marshall Slingsby Advanced Composites. In 2020, Marshall Slingsby Advanced Composites won the Aerospace Company of the Year in the Corporate Live Wire North England Prestige Awards.

Aircraft

* Baynes Bat – experimental glider 1943 *

Buxton Hjordis The Buxton Hjordis was a single-seat sailplane built by Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd. in the UK to a design by G.M Buxton. Only one was constructed and was flown by Philip Wills at competitions in Europe between 1935-7. Development The sole Bux ...

* CAMCO IIA – not completed *

Slingsby T.1 Falcon 1 The Slingsby T.1/T.2 Falcon or British Falcon) was a single-seat sport glider produced, in 1931–37, by Fred Slingsby in Scarborough, Yorkshire. Design and development The Falcon was constructed from plans supplied by the Rhön-Rossitten Gese ...

– single seat sport glider 1931 *

Slingsby T.2 Falcon 2 The Slingsby T.1/T.2 Falcon or British Falcon) was a single-seat sport glider produced, in 1931–37, by Fred Slingsby in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, Scarborough, Yorkshire. Design and development The Falcon was constructed from plans suppli ...

Slingsby T.3 Primary The Slingsby T.3 Primary (a.k.a. Dagling) was a single-seat training glider produced in the 1930s by Fred Slingsby in Kirbymoorside, Yorkshire. Design and development During the 1920s Alexander Lippisch designed a training glider with very l ...

(Dagling) *

Slingsby T.4 Falcon 3 The Slingsby T.4 Falcon 3 was a two-seat training glider produced from 1935, by Fred Slingsby in Kirbymoorside, Yorkshire. Design and development Espin Hardwick persuaded Fred Slingsby to build a two-seat version of the Falcon. Slingsby enlar ...

Slingsby T.5 Grunau Baby The Schneider Grunau Baby was a single-seat sailplane first built in Germany in 1931, with some 6,000 examples constructed in some 20 countries. It was relatively easy to build from plans, it flew well, and the aircraft was strong enough to han ...

Slingsby T.6 Kirby Kite The Slingsby T.6/T.23 Kirby Kite was a single-seat sport glider produced from 1935, by Fred Slingsby in Kirbymoorside, Yorkshire. Design and development During the early 1930s there was a dearth of high-performance gliders that could be flown ...

* Slingsby T.7 Kirby Cadet (Cadet TX.1) *

Slingsby T.8 Kirby Tutor The Slingsby T.8 Kirby Tutor was a single-seat sport glider produced from 1937, by Fred Slingsby in Kirbymoorside, Yorkshire. Design and development The T.8 Kirby Tutor (a.k.a. Taper-wing Kadet) came about at the request of the Midland Glidi ...

(Cadet TX.2) *

Slingsby T.9 King Kite The Slingsby T.9 King Kite is a British Glider (sailplane), glider designed and built by Slingsby Aviation, Slingsby that first flew in 1937. Design and development ISTUS (international commission for the study of motorless flight) launched a ...

Slingsby T.12 Kirby Gull 1 The Slingsby T.12 Gull was a British single-seat glider designed and built by Slingsby Sailplanes and first flown in 1938. Development In the late 1930s the gliding movement in the UK did not receive the support from the government that was ...

Slingsby T.13 Petrel The Slingsby T.13 Petrel was a British single-seat competition glider built by Slingsby Sailplanes just before World War II. Development The Slingsby Petrel was a development of the German Schleicher Rhönadler designed by Hans Jacobs. It ...

* Slingsby T.14 Gull 2 *

Slingsby T.15 Gull 3 The Slingsby T.12 Gull was a British single-seat glider designed and built by Slingsby Sailplanes and first flown in 1938. Development In the late 1930s the gliding movement in the UK did not receive the support from the government that was ...

*Slingsby T.17 – military transport glider project to meet Air Ministry Specification 10/40, not built. *

Slingsby T.18 Hengist The Slingsby Hengist was a British military glider designed and built by Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd. Like other British troop carrying gliders in the Second World War, it was named after military figures whose name began with H, in this case the ...

– military glider 1942 *

Slingsby T.19 Slingsby may refer to: * Slingsby (surname) * Slingsby, North Yorkshire * Slingsby Aviation, formerly Slingsby Sailplanes, a manufacturer of gliders and other aircraft * Slingsby Channel Slingsby Channel is a strait on the north side of Bramham Isl ...

(target glider) *

Slingsby T.20 The Slingsby T.20 was a British glider designed and built by Slingsby that first flew in 1944.Simons, Martin. ''Slingsby Sailplanes''. Shrewsbury: Airlife, 1996. . Design and development The Type 20 was probably the least well known Slingsby p ...

* Slingsby T.21 (Sedbergh TX.1) *

Slingsby T.23 Kite 1A The Slingsby T.6/T.23 Kirby Kite was a single-seat sport glider produced from 1935, by Fred Slingsby in Kirbymoorside, Yorkshire. Design and development During the early 1930s there was a dearth of high-performance gliders that could be flown ...

Slingsby T.24 Falcon 4 The Slingsby T.24 Falcon 4 was a two-seat training glider designed in the UK just after World War II for ATC use. It was judged too expensive for production and only three were completed. Development Despite the shared name, the Slingsby F ...

Slingsby T.25 Gull 4 The Slingsby T.25 Gull 4 is a British glider designed and built by Slingsby that first flew in 1947. Development After the Second World War Slingsby wished to produce a high-performance sailplane to be used in the Olympic games. The German DF ...

Slingsby T.26 Kite 2 The Slingsby Type 26 Kite 2 was a post World War II development of the Slingsby Kite, a single seat medium performance sailplane. It sold in small numbers. Development At the end of World War II Slingsby Sailplanes built a revised and updated ...

* Slingsby T.29A/B Motor Tutor * Slingsby T.30 Prefect *

Slingsby T.31 Tandem Tutor The T.31 Tandem Tutor is a British military training glider, designed and built by Slingsby and used in large numbers by the Air Training Corps between 1951 and 1986. Design and development The T.31 was a tandem two-seat development of the T. ...

(Cadet TX.3) *

Slingsby T.34 Sky The Slingsby Type 34 Sky is a high performance single seat competition sailplane built in the United Kingdom. It was successful in major events, particularly in the World Gliding Championships of 1952. Design and development The single seat ...

Slingsby T.35 Austral The T.31 Tandem Tutor is a British military training glider, designed and built by Slingsby and used in large numbers by the Air Training Corps between 1951 and 1986. Design and development The T.31 was a tandem two-seat development of the T. ...

Slingsby T.37 Skylark 1 The Slingsby T.37 Skylark 1 was a small low-cost sailplane built during 1952-3 at Kirbymoorside, Yorkshire by Slingsby Sailplanes. Design and development Fred Slingsby wanted to take a larger slice of the glider market with a small low-cost sa ...

Slingsby T.38 Grasshopper The Slingsby T.38 Grasshopper is a British primary training glider built by Slingsby Sailplanes for the Royal Air Force.Hardy 1982, p. 115. Development The design is based on the pre-World War II German SG 38 Schulgleiter, modified to use the ...

TX.1 *

Slingsby T.41 Skylark 2 The Slingsby T.41 Skylark 2 was a sailplane produced from 1953 by Slingsby Sailplanes at Kirkbymoorside, Yorkshire. Design and development Following the technical success of the T.37 Skylark, the concept was expanded with the introduction of ...

Slingsby T.42 Eagle The Slingsby Type 42 Eagle was a two-seat glider designed in England from 1952. Development After the end of WWII the British Gliding Association (BGA) recognised a need for two-seat training gliders to replace the unsafe and inefficient sol ...

Slingsby T.43 Skylark 3 The Slingsby T.43 Skylark 3 was a single seat Open Class sailplane developed from the Skylark 2 with an extended wingspan. It won the 1960 World Gliding Championships. Development The first of Slingsby's Skylark series to go into productio ...

Slingsby T.45 Swallow The Slingsby Type 45 Swallow was designed as a club sailplane of reasonable performance and price. One of the most successful of Slingsby's gliders in sales terms, over 100 had been built when production was ended by a 1968 factory fire. Desig ...

Slingsby T.46 The Slingsby T.21 is an open-cockpit, side-by-side two-seat glider, built by Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd and first flown in 1944. It was widely used by the Royal Air Force, Sri Lanka Air Force and by civilian gliding clubs. Design and developmen ...

(a.k.a. T.21C) *

Slingsby T.49 Capstan The Slingsby T.49 Capstan is a British two-seat Glider (sailplane), glider of the 1960s built by Slingsby Sailplanes as a replacement for their earlier Slingsby Eagle, Type 42 Eagle. It is a high-winged monoplane of wooden construction, the la ...

Slingsby T.50 Skylark 4 The Slingsby T.50 Skylark 4 was a British single seat competition glider built by Slingsby Aviation, Slingsby Sailplanes in the early 1960s. It sold in numbers and had success at national, though not world level competition. Development The ...

Slingsby T.51 Dart The Slingsby Type 51 Dart is a single seat competition glider designed in the early 1960s, initially as a 15 m span Standard Class aircraft but evolved into an Open Class, 17 m sailplane. It was the last Slingsby sailplane to be mostly const ...

* Slingsby T.53 * Slingbsy T.56 S.E.5A replica Currie Wot based *

Slingsby T.57 Sopwith Camel replica The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the be ...

Slingsby T.58 Rumpler C.IV replica The Rumpler C.IV was a German single-engine, two-seat reconnaissance biplane. It was a development of C.III with different tail surfaces and using a Mercedes D.IVa engine in place of the C.III's Benz Bz.IV. The Rumpler 6B 2 was a single-seat ...

Slingsby HP-14C Slingsby may refer to: * Slingsby (surname) * Slingsby, North Yorkshire * Slingsby Aviation, formerly Slingsby Sailplanes, a manufacturer of gliders and other aircraft * Slingsby Channel Slingsby Channel is a strait on the north side of Bramham Isl ...

– redesign of

Schreder HP-14 The HP-14 is a Richard Schreder-designed all-metal glider aircraft that was offered as a kit for homebuilding during the 1960s and 1970s. It was originally developed by retrofitting improved wings to the fuselage and tail of the HP-13, and f ...

Slingsby T.59 Kestrel The Slingsby T.59 Kestrel is a British Open class glider which first flew in August 1970. Of fibreglass construction, it features camber-changing flaps, airbrakes, and a retractable main wheel. Originally a licensed-built version of the Gla ...

Slingsby T.61 Falke The Slingsby Type 61 Falke was a licence-built version of the Scheibe SF 25B Motor glider built by Slingsby Sailplanes. It entered service with the Royal Air Force for air cadet training as the Slingsby Venture. Development In 1970 Slingsby ...

(Venture T.1/T.2) *

Slingsby T.65 Vega The Vickers-Slingsby T-65 Vega is a 15-metre class class glider which first flew on 3 June 1977. Of fibreglass construction, it features linked camber-changing flaps and airbrakes, and a retractable main and tailwheel. A simplified version ...

* Slingsby T.66 Nipper Mk 3 *

Slingsby T.67 Firefly The Slingsby T67 Firefly, originally produced as the Fournier RF-6, is a two-seat aerobatic training aircraft, built by Slingsby Aviation in Kirkbymoorside, Yorkshire, England. It has been used as a trainer aircraft by several armed forces, as ...

References

* *''Slingsby Sailplanes'', by Martin Simons, Airlife Publishing 1996 : drawings, descriptions and many photographs of all Slingsby gliders. *Taylor, Michael J.H. . ''Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation". Studio Editions. London. 1989. *Coates, Andrew. "Jane's World Sailplanes & Motor Gliders". 2nd edition. London, Jane's. 1980. *Simons, Martin. "Sailplanes 1920–1945". 2nd revised edition. EQIP Werbung und Verlag G.m.b.H.. Königswinter. 2006. *Simons, Martin. "Sailplanes 1945–1965". 2nd revised edition. EQIP Werbung und Verlag G.m.b.H.. Königswinter. 2006. *Simons, Martin. "Sailplanes 1965–2000". 2nd revised edition. EQIP Werbung und Verlag G.m.b.H.. Königswinter. 2005.

External links

Marshall Advanced Composites website
{{Slingsby aircraft Aircraft manufacturers of England Companies based in Ryedale Glider manufacturers 1931 establishments in England Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1931 Vickers Kirkbymoorside