The General Aircraft GAL.55 was a 1940s
British
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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, ...
military training glider designed and built by
General Aircraft Limited
General Aircraft Limited was a British aircraft manufacturer from its formation in 1931 to amalgamation with Blackburn Aircraft in 1949 to become Blackburn and General. Its main products were military gliders and light transport aircraft.
His ...
.
Development
The GAL.55 was a two-seat training glider to meet
Air Ministry Specification
This is a partial list of the British Air Ministry (AM) specifications for aircraft. A specification stemmed from an Operational Requirement, abbreviated "OR", describing what the aircraft would be used for. This in turn led to the specification i ...
TX.3/43.
The requirement called for a glider to train transport glider pilots and the GAL.55 had side-by-side seating, a tricycle landing gear, split trailing edge flaps and dive brakes.
Two gliders were built, the first flew in 1943 from Hanworth, the type flew well but they did not handle like the contemporary
Hotspur and
Horsa
Hengist and Horsa are Germanic peoples, Germanic brothers said to have led the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in their invasion of Great Britain, Britain in the 5th century. Tradition lists Hengist as the first of the Jutish kings of Kingdom of Kent ...
.
Having no training value the type did not enter production.
Specifications
See also
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:General Aircraft Gal.55
1940s British military trainer aircraft
Glider aircraft
GAL.55
Aircraft first flown in 1943