The Abbott Farnham sailplane was a one-off 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 ...

designed and 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 Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

in 1930.

Design and development

The Abbott Farnham sailplane, named after its builders, was designed by T. C. Letcher and first flew in August 1930. It was an all-wood single-seat glider with a

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is supported at only one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a canti ...

three piece high wing. The central half span had constant chord; outboard long elliptical tips contained the ailerons. No airbrakes or flaps were fitted. The

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

was roughly elliptical in cross-section, tapering towards the tail where it carried mid-mounted, straight-tapered elevators with rounded tips. The

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

was hinged at the extreme end of the fuselage and was of rounded triangular shape with a steep rising leading edge. The open cockpit was immediately ahead of the wing

leading edge The leading edge of an airfoil surface such as a wing is its foremost edge and is therefore the part which first meets the oncoming air.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third edition'', page 305. Aviation Supplies & Academics, ...

. Its undercarriage was a single long skid, reaching from the nose to well behind the wing trailing edge, with a small tailskid.

Operational history

The Abbott Farnham was jointly owned by L. H. Ellis and Russell Taylor. It was entered for the German National Competition of 1930, held at the

Wasserkuppe The is a mountain within the German state of Hesse. It is a large plateau formation at an elevation of and is the highest peak in the Rhön Mountains. Great advances in sailplane development took place on the mountain during the interwar peri ...

, but failed to turn up.The Sailplane, 6 Sept 1930 Only one was built, flying with the name "Alert" on the nose.

Specifications

References

{{Abbott-Baynes aircraft 1930s British sailplanes Aircraft first flown in 1930