Slingsby Aviation was a British

aircraft manufacturer An aerospace manufacturer is a company or individual involved in the various aspects of designing, building, testing, selling, and maintaining aircraft, aircraft parts, missiles, rockets, or spacecraft. Aerospace is a high technology indust ...

based in

Kirkbymoorside 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 ...

, North Yorkshire, England. The company was founded to design and build gliders and

sailplanes 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 ...

. From the early 1930s to around 1970 it built over 50% of all British club gliders and had success at national and international level competitions. It then produced some powered aircraft, notably the composite built Firefly trainer, before becoming a producer of specialised composite materials and components. The business is now known as Marshall Advanced Composites and produces composite parts for ships, submarines and aircraft. It is a subsidiary of

Marshall of Cambridge Marshall may refer to: Places Australia * Marshall, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria Canada * Marshall, Saskatchewan * The Marshall, a mountain in British Columbia Liberia * Marshall, Liberia Marshall Islands * Marshall Islands, ...

History

The business was founded in

Scarborough Scarborough or Scarboro may refer to: People * Scarborough (surname) * Earl of Scarbrough Places Australia * Scarborough, Western Australia, suburb of Perth * Scarborough, New South Wales, suburb of Wollongong * Scarborough, Queensland, su ...

by Frederick Nicholas Slingsby, an

RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

pilot in World War I. In 1920 he bought a partnership in a woodworking and furniture factory in Queen Street, Scarborough. In 1930 Slingsby was one of the founders of the Scarborough Gliding Club. After repairing some of the club's gliders, Slingsby's business built its first aircraft, a German designed RRG Falke which flew in 1931. By late 1933 Slingsby was advertising training gliders for sale. In 1934, encouraged by a local landowner, the business moved to Kirkbymoorside, some 30 miles from Scarborough, operating as Slingsby, Russell & Brown Ltd. As demand for gliders built up, a new factory was needed and built in Welburn, just outside Kirkbymoorside. This opened in July 1939, when Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd was founded. The best selling Slingsby glider in the pre-World War II period was the Primary. During the war Slingsby built parts for other company's aircraft as well as their own

military glider Military gliders (an offshoot of common gliders) have been used by the militaries of various countries for carrying troops ( glider infantry) and heavy equipment to a combat zone, mainly during the Second World War. These engineless aircraft wer ...

, the

Slingsby Hengist The Slingsby Hengist was a British military glider designed and built by Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd. Like other British troop carrying gliders in the Second World War, it was named after military figures whose name began with H, in this case the ...

, though the latter did not see action. Towards the end of the war and afterwards the company produced large numbers of training gliders 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 ...

(ATC). After the war Slingsby continued to make increasingly refined gliders for civilian use in clubs and competitions. Their greatest success was with the

Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space. In the field of astronomy, ...

at the 1952

World Gliding Championships The World Gliding Championships (WGC) is a gliding competition held every two years or so by the FAI Gliding Commission. The dates are not always exactly two years apart, often because the contests are sometimes held in the summer in the Southern ...

, which finished in first, third and fourth place. The later

Slingsby Skylark The Slingsby T.37 Skylark 1 was a small low-cost sailplane built during 1952-3 at Kirbymoorside, Yorkshire by Slingsby Sailplanes. Design and development Fred Slingsby wanted to take a larger slice of the glider market with a small low-cost sa ...

series was their post war best seller. Slingsby began to move toward

glass reinforced plastic Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clot ...

(GRP) and metal construction methods, but the company, trading as Slingsby Aircraft Ltd since 1967, went into liquidation in July 1969 following a disastrous fire in the previous November.

After this Slingsby became part of the

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public i ...

Group in November 1969, initially as Vickers-Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd, then reverting to the old name of Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd, and original design declined, though they built versions of other aircraft, both powered and unpowered. Slingsby’s last glider, which was also their last original design, was the GRP Slingsby T.65 Vega. This ceased production in 1982, by which time high performance sailplane design had moved away from the UK. During the upheavals in the British aerospace and marine sector the company became Slingsby Engineering, part of the public/private holding company British Underwater Engineering (UBE). In July 1982 Slingsby Aviation was set up by, and as part, of Slingsby Engineering. Slingsby Aviation passed from UBE to ML holdings in 1993, then to

Cobham plc Cobham Limited is a British aerospace manufacturing company based in Bournemouth, England. Cobham was originally founded by Sir Alan Cobham as Flight Refuelling Limited (FRL) in 1934. During 1939, British airline Imperial Airways performed s ...

in December 1995. Slingsby's last aircraft was the T-67 Firefly, a two-seater military training aircraft, originally a René Fournier design but structurally reworked by Slingsby into a wholly composite machine. At this time Slingsby Aviation employed around 130 people on its 12,220 square metre (131,000 square feet) site. The company had its own airfield at Kirkbymoorside with a 750-metre reinforced grass runway. Slingsby Aviation’s SAH 2200 hovercraft has operated in such varied regions as the Arctic Circle and Africa. Two are seen in the

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

film, ''

Die Another Day ''Die Another Day'' is a 2002 spy film and the twentieth film in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions. It was produced by Michael G. Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, and directed by Lee Tamahori. The fourth and final film st ...

''. On 10 August 2006 the name of the company was changed to Slingsby Advanced Composites. Since then the company was owned by three individuals and was no longer a part of Cobham plc. On 8 January 2010 the UK company

Marshall Aerospace Marshall Group, formerly Marshall of Cambridge and Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group, is a British company headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Subsidiaries include Marshall Aerospace, an aircraft maintenance, modification, and desig ...

bought Slingsby Advanced Composites Ltd which currently trades as Marshall Slingsby Advanced Composites. In 2020, Marshall Slingsby Advanced Composites won the Aerospace Company of the Year in the Corporate Live Wire North England Prestige Awards.

Aircraft

Baynes Bat The Baynes Bat (or sometimes Slingsby-Baynes Bat) was an experimental glider of the Second World War, designed by L. E. Baynes. It was used to test the tailless design that he had suggested as a means to convert tanks into temporary gliders s ...

– experimental glider 1943 * Buxton Hjordis * CAMCO IIA – not completed * Slingsby T.1 Falcon 1 – single seat sport glider 1931 * Slingsby T.2 Falcon 2 * Slingsby T.3 Primary (Dagling) * Slingsby T.4 Falcon 3 * Slingsby T.5 Grunau Baby * Slingsby T.6 Kirby Kite *

Slingsby T.7 Kirby Cadet The Slingsby T.7 Kirby Cadet is a British training Glider (sailplane), glider designed and built by Slingsby Aviation, Slingsby that first flew in 1935 and saw service with the Royal Air Force for use by the Air Training Corps as the Cadet TX.1 ...

(Cadet TX.1) * Slingsby T.8 Kirby Tutor (Cadet TX.2) * Slingsby T.9 King Kite * Slingsby T.12 Kirby Gull 1 * Slingsby T.13 Petrel *

Slingsby T.14 Gull 2 The Slingsby T.12 Gull was a British single-seat glider designed and built by Slingsby Sailplanes and first flown in 1938. Development In the late 1930s the gliding movement in the UK did not receive the support from the government that was ...

* Slingsby T.15 Gull 3 *Slingsby T.17 – military transport glider project to meet Air Ministry Specification 10/40, not built. * Slingsby T.18 Hengist – military glider 1942 * Slingsby T.19 (target glider) * Slingsby T.20 *

Slingsby T.21 The Slingsby T.21 is an open-cockpit, side-by-side two-seat glider, built by Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd and first flown in 1944. It was widely used by the Royal Air Force, Sri Lanka Air Force and by civilian gliding clubs. Design and developme ...

(Sedbergh TX.1) * Slingsby T.23 Kite 1A * Slingsby T.24 Falcon 4 * Slingsby T.25 Gull 4 * Slingsby T.26 Kite 2 * Slingsby T.29A/B Motor Tutor *

Slingsby T.30 Prefect The Slingsby T.30 Prefect is a 1948 British modernisation of the 1932 single-seat Grunau Baby glider. About 53 were built for civil and military training purposes. Development In 1948, Slingsby Sailplanes developed the 1932 Grunau Baby, which ...

* Slingsby T.31 Tandem Tutor (Cadet TX.3) * Slingsby T.34 Sky * Slingsby T.35 Austral * Slingsby T.37 Skylark 1 *

Slingsby T.38 Grasshopper The Slingsby T.38 Grasshopper is a British primary glider, primary training Glider (sailplane), glider built by Slingsby Aviation, Slingsby Sailplanes for the Royal Air Force.Hardy 1982, p. 115. Development The design is based on the pre-World ...

TX.1 * Slingsby T.41 Skylark 2 * Slingsby T.42 Eagle * Slingsby T.43 Skylark 3 * Slingsby T.45 Swallow * Slingsby T.46 (a.k.a. T.21C) * Slingsby T.49 Capstan * Slingsby T.50 Skylark 4 * Slingsby T.51 Dart *

Slingsby T.53 The Slingsby T.53 was the first all-metal sailplane designed and built in the United Kingdom. It was designed and built by Slingsby Sailplanes for evaluation by the Royal Air Force. Design and development In the early 1960s the RAF issued a r ...

* Slingbsy T.56 S.E.5A replica Currie Wot based * Slingsby T.57 Sopwith Camel replica * Slingsby T.58 Rumpler C.IV replica * Slingsby HP-14C – redesign of Schreder HP-14 * Slingsby T.59 Kestrel * Slingsby T.61 Falke (Venture T.1/T.2) * Slingsby T.65 Vega * Slingsby T.66 Nipper Mk 3 * Slingsby T.67 Firefly

References

* *''Slingsby Sailplanes'', by Martin Simons, Airlife Publishing 1996 : drawings, descriptions and many photographs of all Slingsby gliders. *Taylor, Michael J.H. . ''Jane's Encyclopedia of Aviation". Studio Editions. London. 1989. *Coates, Andrew. "Jane's World Sailplanes & Motor Gliders". 2nd edition. London, Jane's. 1980. *Simons, Martin. "Sailplanes 1920–1945". 2nd revised edition. EQIP Werbung und Verlag G.m.b.H.. Königswinter. 2006. *Simons, Martin. "Sailplanes 1945–1965". 2nd revised edition. EQIP Werbung und Verlag G.m.b.H.. Königswinter. 2006. *Simons, Martin. "Sailplanes 1965–2000". 2nd revised edition. EQIP Werbung und Verlag G.m.b.H.. Königswinter. 2005.

External links

Marshall Advanced Composites website
{{Slingsby aircraft Aircraft manufacturers of England Companies based in Ryedale Glider manufacturers 1931 establishments in England Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1931 Vickers Kirkbymoorside