Slingsby T. 51 Dart Sailplane

Interesting "old school" sailplane construction.

The Dart was originally designed to Standard Class rules and first flew in 1964, winning the 1965 OSTIV prize at the World Championships at South Cerney, England. This notwithstanding, a disappointing competitive performance led to the development of the 17 m. Open Class Dart 17, which had a wood and metal bonded spar in place of the Dart 15's all wood spar. A retractable main gear was added as an option (Dart 17R), and later production examples have an all metal tailplane. In 1965 Dick Georgeson of New Zealand set a world Out & Return record of 730.6 km./ 453.98 miles in a Dart 15.

Slingsby History
The company was founded in nearby Scarborough as Slingsby Sailplanes by Frederick Nicholas Slingsby, a furniture manufacturer, World War I aviator and gliding enthusiast. Its first aircraft was a German designed Falke which flew in 1931. In 1934 the company moved to Kirbymoorside. In World War II, Slingsby contributed to the production of military gliders with the Slingsby Hengist. Slingsby's last glider, the Slingsby T.65 Vega, ceased production in 1982.
The company is now a subsidiary of Cobham plc. Cobham has 3 main groups of companies; FR Aviation, Aerospace Systems (formerly Flight Refuelling Group) and the Chelton Group of companies (of which Slingsby Aviation is a member).
Slingsby designs and manufactures composite structures, ranging from large marine structures, such as submarine rudders, to lightweight helmets for helmet mounted display systems, mainly for the aerospace and defence industries.
Slingsby Firefly T67M of the UK Defence Elementary Flying Training School, used for training Army and Navy student pilots.
Slingsby Aviation's SAH2200 hovercraft has operated in such varied regions as the Arctic Circle and Africa. Two are seen in the James Bond movie, Die Another Day.
The company builds the T-67 Firefly, a two seater military training aircraft.
Slingsby Aviation employs around 130 people on its 12,220 square metre (131,000 square feet) site. The company has its own airfield with a 750 metre reinforced grass runway.

Specifications -- Dart 15 (Dart 17R in parenthesis)
Span 15.0 m./ 49.2 ft (17.0 m./ 55.7 ft.)
Area 12.5 sq. m. / 136 sq.ft.
(13.87 sq. m./ 149.3 sq. ft.)
Aspect ratio 18 (20.4)
Empty weight 218 kg. / 480 lb. (243 kg./ 535 lb.)
Payload 122 kg. / 270 lb. (88 kg./ 195 lb.)
Gross weight 340 kg. / 750 lb. (331 kg./ 730 lb.)
Wing loading 27.21 kg. / sq. m. / 5.51 lb. / sq. ft.
(23.86 kg./ sq. m./ 4.89 lb./ sq. ft.)
Structure wood; (wood/ metal bonded spar, metal tailplane)
Performance
L/D max. 31 (37) 87 kph / 47 kt / 54 mph
Min. sink 0.76 m/s / 2.5 fps / 1.48 kt
77 kph / 42 kt / 48 mph
(0.58 m/s/ 1.9 fps/ 1.13 kt)
Other
Country of origin Great Britain
Designer F.N. Slingsby
No. of seats 1
No. built 81
No. in the U.S. 10

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Slingsby
• T.
• 51
• Dart
• 15
• sailplane
• glider
• T51
• Frederick
• Nicholas
• Sailplanes
• aviation
• history

[stjohnstjohn]

£1200 - I'll take two!!

[Bomberguy]

That's what I said!

[cprich22]

I know a guy called dave who owns a dart 15 in syndicate. its an amazing thing to see fly.

[yamchasbigpants]

I have a skylark 3, yes its a pig to rig, but in the air is where it counts, i wouldnt trade it for a glass job, Great vid btw

cheers craig.

[MrGrumpybugger]

Not sure if any of you ever rigged one, but it was a pig and its predecessor the Skylark 3 was even worse, you needed an army as did the Eagle. But the workmanship!!!!!, nothing to touch it now!

[Andypilot333]

Yeah, I treasure my ex-library copy.  80p from the sale about 10 years ago, and now not for sale at any price (not even stupid eBay prices)!!!

BTW its Ann Welch, she died recently. Most respects.........

[Andypilot333]

"The Industry that's Always on the Up"??????

Up in Flames more like.........the factory was destroyed by fire November 1968, and a short while later that was the end of the 'old' Slingsby.

[cirrusflyboy]

The last few seconds of this video show the Dart's propensity to spin! Presumably intentionally on this occasion.

[cirrusflyboy]

I think you will find that a modern standard class glassfibre sailplane will still cost about twice an average annual salary, so in real terms the cost is about the same. GRP gliders are easier to mass produce once the external moulds are made, so you might even find they work out cheaper than hand building a new Dart or a K6. And of course they perform much better. In the UK you can now pick up some of the earlier generation GRP sailplanes on the secondhand market for as little as £5k.

[winsor68]

Unfortunately the "Plastic" revolution overtook gliding at about the same time the Dart was put into production...

[winsor68]

They just don't make them like they used to...Modern Glassfibre sailplanes were the beginning of the end of affordable gliding as a sport.