The Tainan TN-1, alternatively known by the manufacturer's name Tainan F-5, is a single seat

glider Glider may refer to: Aircraft and transport Aircraft * Glider (aircraft), heavier-than-air aircraft primarily intended for unpowered flight ** Glider (sailplane), a rigid-winged glider aircraft with an undercarriage, used in the sport of glidin ...

built in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in the 1970s. There was no series production.

Design and development

Though its construction began in 1974, the Tainan TN-1 is a conservative design both structurally, with little use of

composite material A composite material (also called a composition material or shortened to composite, which is the common name) is a material which is produced from two or more constituent materials. These constituent materials have notably dissimilar chemical or ...

s, and aerodynamically, employing well tested Göttingen airfoils from forty years before. Consequently, its performance is modest. It first flew in December 1976. The TN-1 has high mounted wings of straight tapered, square tipped plan, forward swept by 2° 4' at one quarter -chord and with 3° of dihedral. They are built from

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

and

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

around a single spar, with fabric covering, though the

aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement around ...

s are plywood skinned. Aluminium

Schempp-Hirth Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau GmbH is a glider manufacturer based in Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany. History Martin Schempp founded his own company in Göppingen in 1935, with the assistance of Wolf Hirth. The company was initially called "Sportfl ...

airbrakes are fitted. As with the wings, the construction methods used in 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 ...

and

empennage The empennage ( or ), also known as the tail or tail assembly, is a structure at the rear of an aircraft that provides stability during flight, in a way similar to the feathers on an arrow.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, third ed ...

of the TN-1 are similar to those in the

Tainan Mita 3 The Kirigamine Mita is a training glider, seating two in tandem, designed in Japan in the early 1960s. A modified version, first flown in 1966, was produced in modest numbers. Design and development The original Mita 3 was designed and built by ...

two-seater. The primary fuselage structure is formed from steel tubes, with wood stringers to shape the fabric covering. The nose-cone is shaped from glass reinforced plastic. The

fin A fin is a thin component or appendage attached to a larger body or structure. Fins typically function as foils that produce lift or thrust, or provide the ability to steer or stabilize motion while traveling in water, air, or other fluids. Fin ...

and

tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...

, the latter mounted on top of the fuselage, are wooden framed with plywood skins but the control surfaces are fabric covered; the

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 ...

extends down to the keel. All the tail surfaces are straight tapered; there is a trim tab on the starboard elevator. The TN-1 lands on a fixed, unsprung but braked monowheel undercarriage, assisted by a tailskid.

Operational history

Some fifteen months after its first flight, the TN-1 was undergoing its certification trials but no further progress had been reported by 1980.

Specifications

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite book , title=Gliders & Sailplanes of the World, last= Hardy , first= Michael , year=1982, publisher=Ian Allan Ltd, location= London, isbn=0 7110 1152 4, pages=134–5 {{cite book , title= Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1980-1981, last= Taylor, first= John W. R. , year=1980, publisher= Jane's Publishing Co., location= London, isbn=0 7106 0705 9, pages=576, 590 {{cite web , url=http://www.ae.illinois.edu/m-selig/ads/aircraft.html, title=The Incomplete Guide to Airfoil Usage , access-date=28 August 2012

External links

Göttingen 533 airfoilGöttingen 532 airfoil
1970s Japanese aircraft