The Slingsby T.4 Falcon 3 was a two-seat training glider produced from 1935, 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, ...

in Kirbymoorside,

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

Espin Hardwick persuaded Fred Slingsby to build a two-seat version of the Falcon. Slingsby enlarged the fuselage to accept side by side seating for pupil and instructor, and enlarged the aircraft to cope with the increased weight. The increased span wings were attached to a rectangular centre-section which was supported by six struts. To increase the field of vision the centre section had celluloid panels and the wing root fairing strips were made from a clear plastic, both of these vision aids tended to have short lives, and were usually replaced with doped fabric or plywood as appropriate.

History

After successful flight tests with only minor modifications, the Falcon 3 was put into production. Eight more were built, but didn't see as much use as trainers as they should have, due to the short-sighted prevailing opinion that trainee pilots gained more from having to master gliders with poor flying characteristics. Production halted by 1938 and most of the Falcon 3's were impressed for use by the Air Training Corps

Operators

UK * Air Training Corps

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

Falcon 3 ''Falcon 3.0'' is a combat flight simulator video game developed by Sphere Inc. and published by Spectrum HoloByte in 1991 as third official main entry in the ''Falcon'' series of the F-16 Fighting Falcon simulators. Gameplay ''Falcon 3.0'' was ...