Nyborg T.G.N.1

Last updated

T.G.N. 1
Role sailplane
Manufacturer UK
DesignerT. G. Nyborg
First flightBetween May and August 1932
Retired1950s
Number built1 or 3

The Nyborg T.G.N.1 was a single-seat experimental sailplane built in the early 1930s, its unusual wing design a scaled-up version of the wings of large birds.

Contents

Design and development

The design of the Nyborg glider was strongly informed by the Danish engineer T G Nyborg's long and quantitative study of bird flight. [1] [2] These considerations led to a glider with wings of high aspect ratio and high wing loading. [2] [3] The T.G.N.1 had an aspect ratio of 21.8 and wing loading of 8.0 lb/ft2 (39 kg/m2), [1] compared with 9.9 and 2.8 lb/ft2 (13.7 kg/m2) for the roughly contemporary Slingsby Falcon (Schleicher Falke). [4]

The short-span, narrow mean chord (16 in or 406 mm) [3] cantilever wing was built of wood like the rest of the T.G.N.1. It had three parts, two plywood-skinned lifting sections each 15 ft (4.57 m) long joined by a 3 ft (910 mm) centre section. [1] The single wing spar was a 4×3 in (102×76 mm) spruce beam. [3] The wing was straight edged and tapered by sweep on the leading edge only. The trailing edges carried full-span ailerons with the inboard half-spans divided into three sections. These inner surfaces moved through progressively smaller angles than the outer ones and could be lowered as camber changing flaps or airbrakes. [1]

This wing was shoulder mounted to a short, stout, flat-sided fuselage. [1] The enclosed [5] cockpit was over the wing with a prominent, curved fairing behind the pilot's head. [4] The tailplane, shaped like a bird's tail, had unusually broad chord for the period, with strong sweep on its leading edge. Its trailing edge was placed at the end of the fuselage and carried a single-piece elevator. [1] Several different rudder shapes were tried or considered: drawings of the early version show a triangular surface with a straight and vertical trailing edge apart from a small cut-out for elevator movement, [1] but pre-first flight images show it with a cropped, triangular fin and tall, rectangular rudder, temporarily installed for aero-towing. [3] By 1938 both fin and rudder appear rectangular, with the latter taller. [6]

Some sources refer to the T.G.N. III [7] and the number built is not certain; either one aircraft was progressively modified, including the fin and rudder alterations noted above, or three different aircraft were built. [1] In an account of an attempt to fly the Nyborg in about 1948, the author reports he "saw the wings of the next model under construction. It looked as though the same fuselage, or much the same fuselage, had been used on most of his gliders, the only change being to the wings." He also noted that the wings were built professionally. An accompanying, undated photograph shows the glider with a further modified, rounded rudder. [8]

Operational history

Towed trials were begun in the late Spring of 1932 but encountered lateral instability problems. [3] An increase in rudder area was not the answer [9] but it seems a cure was found, perhaps by completing the cockpit enclosure, [5] as a particular flight was noted on 13 August 1932. [5] The early tests were made from the London Gliding Club's Totternhoe field on Dunstable Downs. By 1938 it was flying at Duxford. [6]

Its final flights were made near Worcester, Nyborg's home town, in the late 1950s. [1] Despite the long flying life of the T.G.N., no careful assessment of its performance seems to have been made [6] to decide between the predictions made by the designer, his contemporary critics and later analysis. [2] [5] [9]

The Nyborg T.G.N.III survived in store at Warwick in the early 1990s, number 25 on the British Aviation Preservation Council register. [7]

Specifications

Data from British Gliders and Sailplanes 1922-1970 [1]

General characteristics

Related Research Articles

Slingsby Eagle

The Slingsby Type 42 Eagle was a two-seat glider designed in England from 1952.

Slingsby Prefect

The Slingsby T.30 Prefect is a 1948 British modernisation of the 1932 single-seat Grunau Baby glider. About 53 were built for civil and military training purposes.

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.

Slingsby 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.

Slingsby 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.

Slingsby Petrel

The Slingsby T.13 Petrel was a British single-seat competition glider built by Slingsby Sailplanes just before World War II.

Slingsby Skylark 4

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

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.

Handasyde glider

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 Gordon England glider was a single seat glider designed specifically for the first British gliding competition held at Itford Hill in 1922, an endurance event. It made some competition flights but was damaged on the last day.

The Sayers S.C.W. was a single seat monoplane glider, designed specifically for the first British gliding competition held at Itford Hill in 1922, an endurance event. Unresolved control problems stopped it from making any competitive flights, but it flew successfully later in the year. It was destroyed on the ground by a storm in December 1922.

Abbott-Baynes Scud 1

The Abbott-Baynes Scud 1 was a parasol-winged single seat glider intended to introduce pilots to soaring flight. It was built in the United Kingdom and first flew in 1931.

Abbott-Baynes Scud 2

The Abbott-Baynes Scud 2 was a 1930s high-performance sailplane, built in the UK. It was a development of the intermediate-level Scud 1 with a new, high aspect ratio wing.

The Dart Cambridge was a single-seat competition sailplane built in the United Kingdom in the 1930s. A development of the Grunau Baby, only two were built, flying with gliding clubs.

Manuel Wren

The Manuel Crested and Willow Wrens formed a series of wooden, single-seat gliders designed in the UK by W. L. Manuel in the early 1930s, intended for slope soaring. Some were built by the designer, others from plans he supplied. The Dunstable Kestrel was a further development.

The Penrose Pegasus was a 1930s high-wing, single-seat, wooden glider from the UK. Designed, built and flown by Harald Penrose until the start of World War II, only one was built at the time though a reproduction was constructed in the 1990s.

The Radlock Trainer was a single seat primary glider designed and built by members of the Hull Experimental Gliding Club as a basic trainer for their own use in the early 1930s. It was a simple, single exposed seat, wooden glider with a parasol wing.

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.

Scott Viking 1

The Scott Viking 1 was a single seat, high-performance glider designed and built in the UK just before the Second World War. Only four were constructed, one setting records in Argentina and another remaining active into the 1980s.

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.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Ellison, Norman (1971). British Gliders and Sailplanes. London: A & C Black Ltd. p. 172. ISBN   978-0-7136-1189-2.
  2. 1 2 3 "Captain Needham discusses the Nyborg sailplane" (PDF). Sailplane & Glider. 3 (9): 103–5. 2 May 1932.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Private Flying and Gliding". Flight . Vol. XXIV no. 14. 1 April 1932. pp. 280–1.
  4. 1 2 Ellison, Norman (1971). British Gliders and Sailplanes. London: A & C Black Ltd. pp. 148–9. ISBN   978-0-7136-1189-2.
  5. 1 2 3 4 "Performance of the Nyborg glider" (PDF). Sailplane & Glider. 4 (1): 6. 20 January 1933.
  6. 1 2 3 "The Nyborg sailplane again" (PDF). Sailplane & Gliding. VII (4): 203. August 1956. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 April 2012.
  7. 1 2 Ellis, Ken (2010). Wrecks & Relics (22 ed.). Manchester: Crecy. p. 219. ISBN   978-0-85979-150-2.
  8. ↑ "Strange encounters of a Nyborg kind" (PDF). Veteran Glider Club News. 110: 10–11. Winter 2003.
  9. 1 2 3 "Correspondence - the Nyborg sailplane" (PDF). Sailplane & Glider. 4 (3): 34. 17 February 1933.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.