Fred N. Slingsby
Frederick (“Fred”) Nicholas was born on the 6th November 1894, “Slingsby” being a very long established Yorkshire family name. He served in the Royal Flying Corp (to become the RAF) from March 1914 to February 1920, during this time being awarded the Military Medal for bravery whilst flying as a gunner/observer on a photo reconnaissance mission, taking over the machine and successfully landing it after the pilot had been killed. After leaving the RAF he bought a partnership in a woodworking and furniture factory in Queen Street, Scarborough, on the east coast of Yorkshire
The BGA (British Gliding Association) was formed in December 1929 and in parallel with this gliding clubs and groups were starting up all over the country.
Early in 1930 newspaper reports of the BGA's foundation were brought to Fred's attention by a young dance band leader named Sanders who knew of Slingsby's service experience. With a few friends they founded the Scarborough Gliding Club in February 1930, one of the earliest of the British clubs.. With his carpentry expertise and workshop facilities he was appointed ground engineer, which unexpectedly for him led to a complete change in his life that was to have a huge impact on the development of British gliding
The manager of the luxurious Royal Hotel joined and was elected chairman. Members came to meetings in the hotel wearing their best suits for a good meal beforehand. There were lectures and discussions. Flying operations began with a Dagling glider bought from the R. F Dagnall Company of Guildford, Surrey. They flew at weekends and on Wednesday afternoons, using sites at Flixton Hill, due south of the town, and at Sutton Bank, overlooking the Vale of York. Amy Johnson agreed to become president of the club. This was quite a publicity coup for both the gliding club and the town of Scarborough, and thoughts switched to organising a big soaring event that would give yet more national publicity.
So on the 11th July two already well-known glider pilots, Robert Kronfeld and Carli Magersuppe, arrived with their sailplanes to give gliding demonstrations from Castle Hill, Scarborough. The high wind made flying very inadvisable, but no doubt influenced by the large crowd. Magersuppe's Professor sailplane was damaged when it hit a fence on take-off, and he came down in the sea to be rescued by a fishing boat. Kronfeld also crashed in his Wien, so Scarborough certainly got their publicity ! Despite this Magersuppe was appointed instructor to the gliding club at a salary of £10 per week. By the end of 1930 the club had 40 active flying members, and more than twice that number were paying small subscriptions to become social members and, doubtless, joining the festivities at the Royal Hotel.
Slingsby gained his A and B gliding certificates during the year, becoming the first Scarborough member and only the 30th person to do so according to
the BGA register. The A certificate required a straight glide under control lasting 30sec. By the end of the year the club had trained six members to this standard. The B Certificate required a flight of I min and two further flights with safely executed right- and left-hand turns with good landings. Three of the six Scarborough members achieved this. The Dagling was broken regularly, and Slingsby, found himself and his factory constantly involved in repairs. He was forced to present bills for materials and working hours spent away from his business. Thus he entered the gliding industry as an ancillary to his regular occupation. He had a sound background in aircraft woodwork and rigging, and was an excellent draughtsman. The factory provided tools and machinery. His workmen, he said, began to prefer working on the glider to furniture making.
Fred aspired to more than flying (and repairing!) a Primary glider and a visiting German pilot, Gunther Groenhoff, in the winter of 1930 advised him to get a German Falke. Slingsby acquired the plans and what came to be known as the “British Falcon” was the first glider he ever built. After he’d completed building his Falcon 1 in the spring of 1931 Slingsby started to visit quite a few sites and gained a good reputation for himself and the Falcon. In the autumn of 1932 the BGA organised a competition at Ireleth in Lancashire, the home of the Furness Gliding Club. Flying the Falcon he won a number of awards, also at this meeting Mungo Buxton of the London GC borrowed the glider and flew what was a then a record distance for a British cross country of 13 miles to Lake Coniston – this flight duly won the BGA’s Wakefield Trophy for that year.
It was at the Ireleth meeting that Slingsby met Espin Hardwick, a Birmingham stockbroker. Hardwick was very impressed with the Falcon 1 and managed to persuade Slingsby to build him a slightly modified one. This was the Falcon 2 and effectively marks the start of Fred Slingsby’s career as a professional glider manufacturer. The aircraft proved to be very successful, so successful he found himself getting orders for more including a 2-seater version and he also
started producing RFD Dagling, as the Type 3. The growing gliding work meant the workshops in Scarborough were getting too small, and in the summer of 1934 Slingsby managed to obtain the temporary usage of the Scarborough tram sheds which were empty at the time.
The BGA (British Gliding Association) was formed in December 1929 and in parallel with this gliding clubs and groups were starting up all over the country.
Early in 1930 newspaper reports of the BGA's foundation were brought to Fred's attention by a young dance band leader named Sanders who knew of Slingsby's service experience. With a few friends they founded the Scarborough Gliding Club in February 1930, one of the earliest of the British clubs.. With his carpentry expertise and workshop facilities he was appointed ground engineer, which unexpectedly for him led to a complete change in his life that was to have a huge impact on the development of British gliding
The manager of the luxurious Royal Hotel joined and was elected chairman. Members came to meetings in the hotel wearing their best suits for a good meal beforehand. There were lectures and discussions. Flying operations began with a Dagling glider bought from the R. F Dagnall Company of Guildford, Surrey. They flew at weekends and on Wednesday afternoons, using sites at Flixton Hill, due south of the town, and at Sutton Bank, overlooking the Vale of York. Amy Johnson agreed to become president of the club. This was quite a publicity coup for both the gliding club and the town of Scarborough, and thoughts switched to organising a big soaring event that would give yet more national publicity.
So on the 11th July two already well-known glider pilots, Robert Kronfeld and Carli Magersuppe, arrived with their sailplanes to give gliding demonstrations from Castle Hill, Scarborough. The high wind made flying very inadvisable, but no doubt influenced by the large crowd. Magersuppe's Professor sailplane was damaged when it hit a fence on take-off, and he came down in the sea to be rescued by a fishing boat. Kronfeld also crashed in his Wien, so Scarborough certainly got their publicity ! Despite this Magersuppe was appointed instructor to the gliding club at a salary of £10 per week. By the end of 1930 the club had 40 active flying members, and more than twice that number were paying small subscriptions to become social members and, doubtless, joining the festivities at the Royal Hotel.
Slingsby gained his A and B gliding certificates during the year, becoming the first Scarborough member and only the 30th person to do so according to
the BGA register. The A certificate required a straight glide under control lasting 30sec. By the end of the year the club had trained six members to this standard. The B Certificate required a flight of I min and two further flights with safely executed right- and left-hand turns with good landings. Three of the six Scarborough members achieved this. The Dagling was broken regularly, and Slingsby, found himself and his factory constantly involved in repairs. He was forced to present bills for materials and working hours spent away from his business. Thus he entered the gliding industry as an ancillary to his regular occupation. He had a sound background in aircraft woodwork and rigging, and was an excellent draughtsman. The factory provided tools and machinery. His workmen, he said, began to prefer working on the glider to furniture making.
Fred aspired to more than flying (and repairing!) a Primary glider and a visiting German pilot, Gunther Groenhoff, in the winter of 1930 advised him to get a German Falke. Slingsby acquired the plans and what came to be known as the “British Falcon” was the first glider he ever built. After he’d completed building his Falcon 1 in the spring of 1931 Slingsby started to visit quite a few sites and gained a good reputation for himself and the Falcon. In the autumn of 1932 the BGA organised a competition at Ireleth in Lancashire, the home of the Furness Gliding Club. Flying the Falcon he won a number of awards, also at this meeting Mungo Buxton of the London GC borrowed the glider and flew what was a then a record distance for a British cross country of 13 miles to Lake Coniston – this flight duly won the BGA’s Wakefield Trophy for that year.
It was at the Ireleth meeting that Slingsby met Espin Hardwick, a Birmingham stockbroker. Hardwick was very impressed with the Falcon 1 and managed to persuade Slingsby to build him a slightly modified one. This was the Falcon 2 and effectively marks the start of Fred Slingsby’s career as a professional glider manufacturer. The aircraft proved to be very successful, so successful he found himself getting orders for more including a 2-seater version and he also
started producing RFD Dagling, as the Type 3. The growing gliding work meant the workshops in Scarborough were getting too small, and in the summer of 1934 Slingsby managed to obtain the temporary usage of the Scarborough tram sheds which were empty at the time.
After a strong start the Scarborough GC started to experience difficulties and it was agreed it should merge with the Bradford and District club, and so was born the Yorkshire Gliding Club. In 1933 Fred had found an excellent soaring site near Thirsk known as Sutton Bank, a few demonstration flights were made from there and a successful meeting held in October 1933. This was to become the home of the Yorkshire Gliding Club. Fred, along with Phillip Wills was majorly involved in the creation of the Yorkshire GC and especially in the negotiations with the Ecclesiastical Commissioners that led to a lease being granted for the Sutton Bank site in the spring of 1934.
In May 1934 whilst discussing the building of a hangar for the Yorkshire GC with Philip Wills at the club they met Major J.E.D. Shaw, a wealthy landowner and benefactor to local causes. Major Shaw lived near the village of Kirbymoorside and had his own private airstrip, he also ran an agricultural engineering business locally. On hearing of Slingsby’s space difficulties in Scarborough Shaw immediately offered the use of some workshops next to his engineering premises. And so began Fred Slingsby’s decades long involvement with Kirbymoorside, abandoning furniture making and concentrating solely on the manufacture/repair of gliders in the autumn of 1934, the new company being called Slingsby Sailplanes Kirbymoorside.
In the spring of 1935 Major Shaw suggested to Fred Slingsby that he amalgamate his company with the engineering firm, and so the gliding business became the aviation department of Slingsby, Russell, and Brown Ltd, Major Shaw being chairman, this helping Fred Slingsby’s stretched finances considerably. Making and repairing gliders slowly prospered such that not having sufficient work space started to be a problem once more in 1938. Shaw again proved the benefactor by building a completely new factory at Ings Lane,south of Kirbymoorside. It was in fact primarily built from 2 sections of the carriage washing sheds at Neasden Junction, London! - the company becoming Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd.
The new factory opened on Monday 4th September 1939, one day after the outbreak of war! This was initially a disaster as by Easter 1940 all civilian gliding was banned. Work continued on completing the gliders already under construction, and a contract to build Anson rudders helped keep the business going. Things then started to improve with an initial order for the Hengist troop carrying glider, a long production run of Cadets (Type 7) for the ATC, and constructing a small number of Hotspurs under licence. So Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd was in fairly good shape when the European war ended in the spring of 1945 ushering in the start of a new era of civilian sporting gliding in the UK. Anticipating the end of the war and the need for better training gliders for both the ATC and private clubs, Slingsby designed and built both a tandem and a side-by- side prototype glider to meet this need. This later design became the Slingsby T.21B Sedbergh.
It certainly wasn’t “boom time” for gliding in the latter part of the 1940s, Great Britain was hit by post war austerity. However, things did gradually improve such that by the middle 1950s Slingsby’s business was prospering. Then on the 21st April 1955 Major Shaw died and this caused a crisis as his shares in Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd had to be sold to settle death duties. For a while it looked like a hostile takeover could happen which would result in the closure of the Kirbymoorside factory. However, the Shaw-Slingsby Trust was formed chaired by Philip Wills and the risk was averted. Fred was awarded the Paul Tissander Diploma by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in 1957.
Following the disastrous factory fire on the 18th November 1968 Slingsbys hit major financial problems and were forced into receivership in 1969. The company was bought by Vickers on the 3rd Nov 1969. However, before this Fred Slingsby’s health had started to deteriorate in 1962, and 2 years later he retired at the age of 70. He died in May 1973 at Ryedale, Yorkshire, and so passed a gliding legend. Slingsby had no formal qualifications in aeronautics or engineering but was ready to employ qualified consultants. He had a shrewd business sense and a great enthusiasm for gliding.
In May 1934 whilst discussing the building of a hangar for the Yorkshire GC with Philip Wills at the club they met Major J.E.D. Shaw, a wealthy landowner and benefactor to local causes. Major Shaw lived near the village of Kirbymoorside and had his own private airstrip, he also ran an agricultural engineering business locally. On hearing of Slingsby’s space difficulties in Scarborough Shaw immediately offered the use of some workshops next to his engineering premises. And so began Fred Slingsby’s decades long involvement with Kirbymoorside, abandoning furniture making and concentrating solely on the manufacture/repair of gliders in the autumn of 1934, the new company being called Slingsby Sailplanes Kirbymoorside.
In the spring of 1935 Major Shaw suggested to Fred Slingsby that he amalgamate his company with the engineering firm, and so the gliding business became the aviation department of Slingsby, Russell, and Brown Ltd, Major Shaw being chairman, this helping Fred Slingsby’s stretched finances considerably. Making and repairing gliders slowly prospered such that not having sufficient work space started to be a problem once more in 1938. Shaw again proved the benefactor by building a completely new factory at Ings Lane,south of Kirbymoorside. It was in fact primarily built from 2 sections of the carriage washing sheds at Neasden Junction, London! - the company becoming Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd.
The new factory opened on Monday 4th September 1939, one day after the outbreak of war! This was initially a disaster as by Easter 1940 all civilian gliding was banned. Work continued on completing the gliders already under construction, and a contract to build Anson rudders helped keep the business going. Things then started to improve with an initial order for the Hengist troop carrying glider, a long production run of Cadets (Type 7) for the ATC, and constructing a small number of Hotspurs under licence. So Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd was in fairly good shape when the European war ended in the spring of 1945 ushering in the start of a new era of civilian sporting gliding in the UK. Anticipating the end of the war and the need for better training gliders for both the ATC and private clubs, Slingsby designed and built both a tandem and a side-by- side prototype glider to meet this need. This later design became the Slingsby T.21B Sedbergh.
It certainly wasn’t “boom time” for gliding in the latter part of the 1940s, Great Britain was hit by post war austerity. However, things did gradually improve such that by the middle 1950s Slingsby’s business was prospering. Then on the 21st April 1955 Major Shaw died and this caused a crisis as his shares in Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd had to be sold to settle death duties. For a while it looked like a hostile takeover could happen which would result in the closure of the Kirbymoorside factory. However, the Shaw-Slingsby Trust was formed chaired by Philip Wills and the risk was averted. Fred was awarded the Paul Tissander Diploma by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale in 1957.
Following the disastrous factory fire on the 18th November 1968 Slingsbys hit major financial problems and were forced into receivership in 1969. The company was bought by Vickers on the 3rd Nov 1969. However, before this Fred Slingsby’s health had started to deteriorate in 1962, and 2 years later he retired at the age of 70. He died in May 1973 at Ryedale, Yorkshire, and so passed a gliding legend. Slingsby had no formal qualifications in aeronautics or engineering but was ready to employ qualified consultants. He had a shrewd business sense and a great enthusiasm for gliding.
References
- Unpublished biography by Walter Kahn 2008
- Slingsby Sailplanes, by Martin Simons, Airlife Publishing 1996 ISBN 1-85310-732-8
- Early gliding in the UK
- History of Slingsby gliders
- Gliding Heritage Centre Article 'Slingsby Guide' by Gylnn Bradney
- Gliding Heritage Centre Article 'The History of British Gliding Part One' by Gylnn Bradney