The Slingsby T.8 Kirby Tutor was a single-seat sport glider produced from 1937, by

Fred Slingsby Frederick 'Fred' Nicholas Slingsby MM (6 November 1894 – 21 May 1973) was the founder of Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd (later Slingsby Aviation). Biography Slingsby was born on 6 November 1894 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, the son of Reube ...

Kirbymoorside Kirkbymoorside () is a market town and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England. It is north of York; midway between Pickering and Helmsley, and on the edge of the North York Moors National Park. The parish had a population of 3,040 in the 20 ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

Design and development

The T.8 Kirby Tutor (a.k.a. Taper-wing Kadet) came about at the request of the Midland Gliding Club which wanted a higher performance aircraft to progress to after the T.7 Kirby Kadet. John Sproule adapted the wings from a BAC VII to fit onto the T.7 Kirby Kadet fuselage. The higher-aspect ratio wings gave a measurable increase in performance for minimum cost. Gliding clubs could also elect to buy the wings alone and fit them to Kirby Kadet fuselages as required. Post-war the absence of spoilers was rectified by a modification which was applied to most surviving aircraft.

History

The T.8 Kirby Tutor was immediately popular but only seven complete aircraft were sold before the outbreak of

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 ...

, as well as kits of parts, spares and sets of wings (for retrofit to T.7 Kirby Kadets). The T.8 Tutor was also produced for use by the Air Training Corps, being renamed Slingsby T.8 Cadet TX Mk.2. Sixty-two Cadet TX Mk.2s were ordered from 1944 with simple windscreens and landing wheels. Postwar Slingsby sub-contracted Martin Hearn Ltd to build 25 new T.7 Kirby Kadets and 25 new T.8 Kirby Tutors and these were followed by about a dozen more built by Slingsby at Kirbymoorside. The interchangeability of the components led to many hybrid aircraft having wings and fuselages of all types mixed together. During the 1960s the numbers dwindled, especially when an urgent inspection of the main-spars was called for. The cost of the inspection and resultant rectification work often exceeded the value of the aircraft, with many being withdrawn from use. An example is on display at the

Gliding Heritage Centre The Gliding Heritage Centre (GHC) is a collection of vintage gliders based at Lasham Airfield, Hampshire, UK. Origins Christopher Wills, the son of Philip Wills, founded the Vintage Glider Club in 1973. He died on 4 May 2011 but left a beque ...

Operators

;

Air Training Corps The Air Training Corps (ATC) is a British Youth organisations in the United Kingdom, volunteer youth organisation; aligned to, and fostering the knowledge and learning of military values, primarily focusing on military aviation. Part of the ...

Design and development

History

Operators

Specifications

See also

References

Notes

Bibliography

Further reading