Customer Reviews

Slingsby Sailplanes

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Martin Simons has done an enormous service for all who have an interest in the history of soaring by telling the story of Fred Slingsby and the three dozen types of gliders his British firm produced over 5 decades. Simons owns a restored classic Slingsby Skylark II, and gives this book the treatment you would expect to find in a labor of love.

What begins with bungee-launched wooden primary gliders finishes with world class fiberglass t-tail works of art. The author is both a modeler and a sailplane pilot. This unique book meets the needs of both ends of the spectrum, from the technical details to the narrative story about the people who produced the machines. His three view drawings are excellent, and he pays particular attention to showing the airfoils and cross sections used in the construction of the graceful machines. It stops short of showing the performance polars of these gliders, but he gives great insight into how they were flown and of the economics which dictate what designs are destined to thrive and those that are remembered only as a footnote.

He has continued in the spirit of this book, and produced a companion work on the American Schweizer brothers, and the successful metal designs that established and sustained the soaring movement in the United States.

Both books are available new, and are well worth the effort it will take to add these classics to your library.

Blue Jay flies gliders in Tehachapi California, home to a number of classic wooden Slingsby sailplanes.