The Slingsby T.3 Primary (a.k.a. Dagling) was a single-seat training glider produced in the 1930s by

Fred Slingsby Frederick 'Fred' Nicholas Slingsby Military Medal, MM (6 November 1894 – 21 May 1973) was the founder of Slingsby Aviation, Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd (later Slingsby Aviation). Slingsby was born 6 November 1894 in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, ...

Kirbymoorside Kirkbymoorside () is a market town and civil parish in the Ryedale district in North Yorkshire, England. It is north of York, It is also midway between Pickering and Helmsley, on the edge of the North York Moors National Park. It had a populat ...

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

Design and development

During the 1920s

Alexander Lippisch Alexander Martin Lippisch (November 2, 1894 – February 11, 1976) was a German aeronautical engineer, a pioneer of aerodynamics who made important contributions to the understanding of tailless aircraft, delta wings and the ground effect, and a ...

designed a training glider with very low performance to introduce pilots gradually to full-blown gliding. The result was a glider with a very simple structure of an open framework

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 ...

, with short wings attached by cables to a king post and the base of the fuselage. Lippisch's original design, the Zögling (Pupil in English) had an all-wood fuselage but

Wolf Hirth Wolfram Kurt Erhard Hirth (28 February 1900 – 25 July 1959) was a German gliding pioneer and sailplane designer. He was a co-founder of Schempp-Hirth, still a renowned glider manufacturer.Segelflugbildkalendar 2011 Hirth was born in Stuttgart, ...

instigated a redesign of the rear fuselage using steel tubes.

History

The plans for the modified Zögling made their way via the United States to the

London Gliding Club The London Gliding Club (LGC) is a members' club whose airfield is located at the foot of the Dunstable Downs. Many privately owned gliders are based there. It has the facilities to train pilots in powerless flight, and in the skills necessary t ...

and

Reginald Foster Dagnall Reginald Foster Dagnall (11 April 1888 – 16 November 1942) was a British engineer and aircraft designer. Early life Dagnall was born in Fulham, London in 1888 the son of Walter and Frances Dagnall, he was educated at Tiffin School, Kingston ...

, whose RFD company put it into production as the RFD Primary. They built 27 in 1930-31. The type became known as the Dagling, a name formed by combining Dagnall and Zögling, which later became used informally to cover all types of primary gliders in the UK. Fred Slingsby took over construction in 1934 and production continued up to the outbreak of

World War II 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 Primary should not be confused with the similar T.38 Grasshopper which was produced for the

Air Training Corps The Air Training Corps (ATC) is a British volunteer-military youth organisation. They are sponsored by the Ministry of Defence and the Royal Air Force. The majority of staff are volunteers, and some are paid for full-time work – including C ...

in the 1950s.

Operators

Variants

;Slingsby T.3 Primary :Derived from the Wolf Hirth-modified Zögling ;RFD Primary Type AT :Production of the Primary by the R.F.D. Co, named Dagling from a contraction of Dagnall and Zögling. ;Hawkridge Dagling :A modified Dagnall built post

by the Hawkridge Aircraft Co.

Specifications

References

* Ellison, N.H. ''British Gliders and Sailplanes 1922-1970''. A & C Black, 1971 * Simons, M. ''Slingsby Sailplanes''. Airlife Publishing, 1996 -

External links

{{Slingsby aircraft 1930s British sailplanes Glider aircraft

Primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Works * ...

Parasol-wing aircraft