The Airspeed AS.1 Tern was a 1930s
British
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, ...
glider aircraft
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 ...
, the first aircraft built by
Airspeed Limited at
York
York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...
and one of the earliest British-designed gliders.
Development
The Tern was designed by
Hessell Tiltman &
Nevil Shute Norway
Nevil Shute Norway (17 January 189912 January 1960) was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name, in order to protect h ...
to gain records and publicity for the new
Airspeed
In aviation, airspeed is the speed of an aircraft relative to the air. Among the common conventions for qualifying airspeed are:
* Indicated airspeed ("IAS"), what is read on an airspeed gauge connected to a Pitot-static system;
* Calibrated a ...
company, as well as to attract orders for new aircraft.
Designed for hill- and cloud-soaring, the Tern was a wood-and-fabric cantilever monoplane.
It was designed to be dismantled and was advertised for sale at £248. Only two examples were built.
Shute himself was the pilot on the Tern's first test flight.
[Nevil Shute, "Slide Rule", London: Heinemann, 1954]
On 24 August 1931 the Tern was flown by Carli Magersuppe from Stoupe Brow, Ravenscar to Scarborough to gain the first British distance record of 8.3 miles (13.4 km).
The glider flew a total of but only the straight-line distance counted towards the record.
The Tern was constructed of wood with a fabric-covered two-spar cantilevered tapered wing with no dihedral. A plywood leading edge was fitted but only as an aerodynamic fairing and not as primary structure. The trapezoidal-section fuselage had plywood lower sides and fabric-covered top decking as well as a generous cockpit in the leading edge of the centre-section.
The Tern had some success in establishing gliding records but only one was completed and parts for one more were produced. After languishing through the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
the Tern was re-built, using parts from both airframes, but did little flying.
Specifications
References
*Simons, Martin. Sailplanes 1920-1945 2nd revised edition. EQIP Werbung und Verlag G.m.b.H.. Königswinter. 2006.
*
{{Airspeed aircraft
1930s British sailplanes
Glider aircraft
Tern
Terns are seabirds in the family Laridae that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated as a subgroup of the family Laridae which includes gulls and skimmers and consists of e ...
Aircraft first flown in 1931