Our Fleet

The “wood & canvas” era of Air Cadet Gliding

These gliders formed the backbone of both Civilian and Air Cadet gliding from the 1950’s, continuing in use with the RAF Air Training Corps and CCF till the 1980’s. We have gathered together examples of nearly all the different types used – either owned by the Air Cadet Historic Flight, or on long term loan to us from generous owners.

Slingsby Gliders

The Slingsby T7 “Kirby Cadet” first flew in 1935. A simple single seat glider it was used by the Air Training Corps and known as the Cadet TX Mk.1, Slingsby produced a better performing wing to marry to the TX Mk.1 fuselage and this in turn became the Cadet TX Mk.2 (Tutor). Many TX Mk.1s were converted and their wings used to construct primary “Grasshoppers”. The single seat gliders were initially used for “solo training” using ground slides & “hops” to build up to a full circuit.

Two Seat Training

Single seat training had obvious disadvantages and it was soon decided that it was eminently sensible to have the instructor onboard the aircraft. Slingsbys first two seater (the T21 “Sedbergh) was initially not approved by the Air Training Corps, so Slingsby took the T8 “Tutor” and lengthened the fuselage to enable an additional cockpit to be added to produce the Cadet TX Mk3. This was later joined by the (now approved) Sebergh Tx Mk1.

What’s in a name?

The RAF used their own designations for their gliders, which can be confusing to those from a civilian gliding background where names or Slingsby type numbers are more commonly used. Different RAF and ATC documents may refer to the same glider as (for example) Cadet TX.1 or Cadet TX Mk1 and verbally some gliders were just called by the suffix (eg “Mark 3” for the T31). We’ve even found that RAF documents & logbooks from the mid 1970’s miss-spell Sedbergh (named after the School) as Sedburgh.

Here’s a short list of the equivalent civilian terms:

RAFCivilianAlso known as…..
Grasshopper TX Mk.1Grasshopper Primary, T38
Cadet TX Mk.1Cadet Kirby Cadet, T7, TX.1, Mark 1
Cadet TX Mk.2Tutor Kirby Tutor, T8, TX2, Mark2
Cadet TX Mk.3T31Cadet Mark 3, “The Brick”, TX.3
Sedbergh TX Mk.1T21“The barge”, Sedbergh (on some MoD documents “Sedburgh”!)
Prefect TX Mk.1PrefectT30

Historic Flight Gliders

Slingsby Cadet TX Mk.1 – “Coming Soon”

The Slingsby T7 Kirby Cadet was designed and built by Slingsby and first flew in 1935 and was produced through …

Slingsby Cadet TX Mk.3 – XA310

The T31 was originally developed by Slingsby as a cheaper alternative to the T21, and designated the Cadet TX Mk.3 …
Grasshopper

Slingsby Grasshopper TX Mk.1 WZ828

The development of the Cadet TX Mk.1 to TX M.2 led to a surplus of Cadet TX Mk1 wings, Slingsby …

Slingsby Prefect TX Mk.1 – WE982

Recently gifted to the ACHF from the RAF Museum Collection (where it had been in storage for many years) we …

Slingsby Prefect TX Mk.1 – WE992

In 1948, Slingsby Sailplanes developed the 1932 Grunau Baby, which it had built under licence before World War II, into …

Slingsby Sedbergh TX Mk.1 – WB922

The Sedbergh TX Mk.1 is more affectionally known as “The Barge” (many civilian versions had individual names such as “Daisy”, …

Other ATC Gliders (Pre 1980)

Falcon 4 TX.8/45

In 1944 the RAF Air Training Corps did not approve of the T21 design and so the Air Ministry produced …

Slingsby T-53

In 1966 John Sellars, the new Slingsbys chief engineer made a design study for the T-52 – a proposed 14.6 …

Historic Flight Equipment

Trailers

Gliders need trailers! While some of the airworthy examples in our fleet live “rigged” in a hangar (currently in shared …

1/2 Ton Lightweight Landrover

In the era of the wooden gliders, the schools were usually equipped with a variety of vehicles that were surplus …

Retrieve Equipment

Having limited types of gliders in use enabled use of some specialised equipment by the Volunteer Gliding Squadrons. Here you …