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 ind ...

based in Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, England. The company was founded to design and build gliders and sailplanes. 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, a ...

History

The business was founded in Scarborough by Frederick Nicholas Slingsby, an RAF 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 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 ...

. 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 (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 at the 1952 World Gliding Championships, 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 (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 British may refer to: 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, ...

(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 in December 1995. Slingsby's last aircraft was the

T-67 Firefly The Slingsby T67 Firefly, originally produced as the Fournier RF-6, is a two-seat aerobatic training aircraft, built by Slingsby Aviation in Kirkbymoorside, Yorkshire, England. It has been used as a trainer aircraft by several armed forces, a ...

, 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 hav ...

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 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 – 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 (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 * 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 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 ...

– military glider 1942 *

Slingsby T.19 Slingsby may refer to: * Slingsby (surname) * Slingsby, North Yorkshire * Slingsby Aviation Slingsby Aviation was a British aircraft manufacturer based in Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, England. The company was founded to design and build ...

(target glider) *

Slingsby T.20 The Slingsby T.20 was a British glider designed and built by Slingsby that first flew in 1944.Simons, Martin. ''Slingsby Sailplanes''. Shrewsbury: Airlife, 1996. . Design and development The Type 20 was probably the least well known Slingsby p ...

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 The Slingsby T.6/T.23 Kirby Kite was a single-seat sport glider produced from 1935, by Fred Slingsby in Kirbymoorside, Yorkshire. Design and development During the early 1930s there was a dearth of high-performance gliders that could be flown ...

* 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 * 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 TX.1 * Slingsby T.41 Skylark 2 * Slingsby T.42 Eagle * Slingsby T.43 Skylark 3 *

Slingsby T.45 Swallow The Slingsby Type 45 Swallow was designed as a club sailplane of reasonable performance and price. One of the most successful of Slingsby's gliders in sales terms, over 100 had been built when production was ended by a 1968 factory fire. Desig ...

* Slingsby T.46 (a.k.a. T.21C) * Slingsby T.49 Capstan *

Slingsby T.50 Skylark 4 The Slingsby T.50 Skylark 4 was a British single seat competition glider built by Slingsby Sailplanes in the early 1960s. It sold in numbers and had success at national, though not world level competition. Development The Slingsby Skylark 4 ...

* Slingsby T.51 Dart * Slingsby T.53 * Slingbsy T.56 S.E.5A replica

Currie Wot The Currie Wot (pronounced as ''"what"'') was a 1930s British single-seat aerobatic biplane aircraft. Plans were sold for home building of the aircraft. Design and development The Wot was designed by J R (Joe) Currie, and two examples were bu ...

based *

Slingsby T.57 Sopwith Camel replica The Sopwith Camel is a British First World War single-seat biplane fighter aircraft that was introduced on the Western Front in 1917. It was developed by the Sopwith Aviation Company as a successor to the Sopwith Pup and became one of the be ...

* 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