| Lists of aircraft |
|---|
This is a list of gliders/sailplanes of the world, (this reference lists all gliders with references, where available) [1] Note: Any aircraft can glide for a short time, but gliders are designed to glide for longer.
 |
| List of gliders |
|---|
| By constructor name |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Slingsby Aviation is a British aircraft company based in Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, England. The company was founded on the building and design of gliders and sailplanes. 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.
Dart Aircraft Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer during the 1930s. Its facilities were located at 29 High Street North, Dunstable, Bedfordshire.
A glider is a fixed-wing aircraft that is supported in flight by the dynamic reaction of the air against its lifting surfaces, and whose free flight does not depend on an engine. Most gliders do not have an engine, although motor-gliders have small engines for extending their flight when necessary by sustaining the altitude with some being powerful enough to take off by self-launch.
Cecil Hugh (Chookie) Latimer-Needham was a British aircraft designer, inventor and aviation author. He is best remembered for the series of aircraft he designed for the Luton Aircraft company and his invention of the Hovercraft skirt for which he was granted a patent. His book, Aircraft Design proved to be an invaluable reference work for Bill Goldfinch and Jack Best during their construction of the Colditz glider. The Germans were rather careless in providing a copy of the book in the Colditz prison library.
The British Aircraft Company was a British aircraft manufacturer based in Maidstone. It was founded by C H Lowe-Wylde and produced gliders and light aircraft during the 1930s.
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.
The Slingsby T.8 Kirby Tutor was a single-seat sport glider produced from 1937, by Fred Slingsby in Kirbymoorside, Yorkshire.
Eric Cecil Gordon England AFRAeS, FIMT, was a British aviator, racing driver and engineer. E.C. Gordon England was one of the early pioneers of gliding, and his glider flight in 1909 is considered to be the birth of the sport of soaring.
The Handasyde glider was a single-seat monoplane glider, designed specifically for the first British gliding competition held at Itford Hill in 1922, an endurance event. It finished in second place to a French tandem-wing machine.
The Sproule-Ivanoff Camel was a 1930s British single-seat medium performance glider designed by J.S Sproule and Alexander Ivanoff and built by Scott Light Aircraft of Dunstable, Bedfordshire.
The Payne I.C.1 was a primary glider built by members of a University gliding club in 1930. It was finished and prepared for flight but was damaged by wind and repairs were never completed.
The Reynard R.4 Primary was an open seat primary glider with an open girder fuselage and a high, wire braced wing. It was designed and built in the UK in 1930 and a few served Gliding Clubs in England and Ireland.
The Stedman TS-1 City of Leeds was a parasol wing wooden sailplane, seating two in tandem open cockpits. Only one was built, by its designer in 1934; it remained active until the outbreak of World War II.
The CVV-6 Canguro was a high performance two seat glider, designed at Milan Polytechnic University in 1940. A small batch was ordered for the Italian Air Force but few were delivered; more were produced after World War II, becoming the most common Italian gliding club machine. Some were still in use in the 1980s. In 1954 a Canguro came second at the World Gliding Championships at Camphill Great Hucklow, Derbyshire, England. One was modified into a powered aircraft, at first with a piston engine and later with a turbojet.
