The Buxton Hjordis was a single-seat

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 ...

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 Philip Aubrey Wills CBE (26 May 1907 – 16 January 1978)Fripp UK genealogy was a pioneering British glider pilot. He broke several UK gliding records from the 1930s to the 1950s and was involved in UK gliding administration including being Ch ...

at competitions in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

between 1935-7.

Development

The sole Buxton Hjordis was a high-performance sailplane designed by G.M "Mungo" Buxton and built in 1935 by Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd. It was a single-seater of all-wood construction. Its straight-tapered, cantilever wing was pedestal-mounted and was without flaps or airbrakes. 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 circular in cross section with the cockpit immediately in front 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, ...

and a wheel-less, single-skid main undercarriage. Aft, the fuselage tapered to carry a very small triangular fin, on which was mounted a much taller, wide chord

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 ...

of rounded triangular shape and with a vertical leading edge. The horizontal tail was small and essentially all

elevator An elevator or lift is a wire rope, cable-assisted, hydraulic cylinder-assisted, or roller-track assisted machine that vertically transports people or freight between floors, levels, or deck (building), decks of a building, watercraft, ...

apart from a leading-edge hinge. Buxton began the design of a development, the Hjordis 2 which was completed and built by

Slingsby Aviation Slingsby Aviation was a British aircraft manufacturer based in Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, England. The company was founded to design and build gliders and sailplanes. From the early 1930s to around 1970 it built over 50% of all British c ...

as the King Kite.

Operational history

The Hjordis first flew on 27 June 1935. It had been designed and built for the well-known British glider pilot,

, and he flew it at the British National Gliding Competitions at

Sutton Bank Sutton Bank is a hill in the Hambleton District of the North York Moors National Park, North Yorkshire in England. It is a high point on the Hambleton Hills with extensive views over the Vale of York and the Vale of Mowbray. At the foot of Sut ...

in September 1935. He also flew it at the International Competition held between 14-47 July 1937 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 ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

.''Flight'' 15 August 1937 p.81
/ref> At that time it was registered as ''G-GAAA''. The following year it went to South Africa as ''ZS-23''.

The name

Hjordis is a character in

Norse mythology Norse, Nordic, or Scandinavian mythology is the body of myths belonging to the North Germanic peoples, stemming from Old Norse religion and continuing after the Christianization of Scandinavia, and into the Nordic folklore of the modern period ...

, the mother of

Sigurd Sigurd ( non, Sigurðr ) or Siegfried (Middle High German: ''Sîvrit'') is a legendary hero of Germanic heroic legend, who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Meroving ...

Siegfried Siegfried is a German-language male given name, composed from the Germanic elements ''sig'' "victory" and ''frithu'' "protection, peace". The German name has the Old Norse cognate ''Sigfriðr, Sigfrøðr'', which gives rise to Swedish ''Sigfrid' ...

Specifications

Notes

References

* {{Slingsby aircraft 1930s British sailplanes Buxton Hjordis Aircraft first flown in 1935 High-wing aircraft