M.Simons The World's Vintage Sailplanes 1908-45

THE FALCON 3

  In England in 1930. Fred Slingsby bought a set of Falke plans and his British Falcon flew in 1931. In it Slingsby earned his ‘C’ soaring badge. He was pressed to sell it to other aspirants, but decided instead to become a glider ДальшеMore>>> manufacturer. He called the British Falcon the Slingsby Type 1, and took orders. The next one was called the Falcon 2 and had rounded wing tips and some other refinements, built to special order for Espin Hardwick. Slingsby went on to build another eight of the original Type 1.
  Hardwick, who played a leading part in the British Gliding Association and formed the Midland Gliding Club, then asked Slingsby to build him a two-seat, dual-control version. Hardwick financed the project and the Falcon 3 appeared in 1935. It was in almost every way like its small predecessor, even imitating the little ‘gull’ wing kink of the single seaters. There were two seats, side by side, in the broad, box-like fuselage, and instead of the three-point wing attachment at the centre. Slingsby mounted a large rectangular centre section on four vertical struts above the cockpit, to which the main wings were attached. The 'V' struts were much as before, only larger. Slingsby received new orders and a further nine were built.
  In 1937 the British sent a Falcon 3 to the International Competition at the Wasserkuppe. It was doubtless the cause of some astonishment among the Germans who had abandoned the single-seat version years before and had by now developed some very fine, high performance two-seat sailplanes. The Slingsby design was hardly their idea of a contest aircraft. After a few days without scoring, flown on 12th July by W.B. Murray and J. S. Fox, the Falcon 3 astonished everyone by setting a new world duration record of 9 hours 48 minutes. Before the end of the year the Germans recaptured the record and by June 1938 it stood at over 21 hours. Murray, this time flying with John Sproule during the British National Championships at Dunstable, tried again, flying all day and on into the night, landing in the end with the aid of car headlights early in the morning of July 10th. The time was 22 hours 13 minutes. The Germans took the record back again with a 50 hour flight before very long. The Falcon 3's days of international fame were over.
  All the Falcon 3s were taken over for cadet training during the war, and only four or five survived. None remain now.

Technical data:
  Slingsby Type 4, Falcon 3: Span, 17.69 m. Wing area, 26.52 sq m, Aspect ratio, 11.8. Sweepback, 12.5 deg. Empty weight, 226.8 kg. Flying weight, 407.5 kg. Wing loading, 15.3 kg/sq m. Best glide claimed, 1 : 20. Aerofoils as for RRG Falke.