M.Hardy. Gliders & Sailplanes of the world

Manuel Condor

  One of the pioneer British sailplane designers before the war, Mr W. L Manuel designed the Wren series of gliders which culminated in the Willow Wren of 1932, and more recently he created the Hawk singleseater. He became concerned ДальшеMore>>> at the number of fatal accidents in hang gliding in recent years, and in the Condor has designed a simple two-seater sailplane intended especially for hill soaring and aimed at meeting the needs of those who would like to fly but who could not afford the price of a modern high performance sailplane, and who do not have the skills or the time to construct one of the homebuilt designs now on offer. Resembling the primary trainers of the early 1930s in appearance, the Condor has a short boat-shaped fuselage nacelle of metal tube construction with comfortable side-by-side seating for two in an open cockpit; at the rear of the nacelle is a pylon on which the high constant chord wings are mounted, these being braced by V-struts on each side to a keel running under the cockpit. The tail unit is carried on an open girder-type rear fuselage of aluminium tubing, the tail surfaces being of generous area with fabric covered ribs and wide-chord elevators. The landing gear consists of a bow-shaped ash skid under the fuselage nacelle, with rubber rollers as shock absorbers. The prototype Condor made its first flight in August 1976 and in addition to local soaring has made a number of longer distance flights.


Span: 50 ft 2 1/2 in
Length: 21 ft 0 in
Wing area: 250.0 sq ft
Aspect ratio: 10.0
Empty weight: 492 lb
Max weight: 899 lb
Max speed: 86.5 mph
Best glide ratio: 14:1