The last of the Falkes
SIR—Following John Sproule's reply to Herr Oberparleiter's letter on the Falke sailplane, (Flight, April 25 and May 30), I feel it may be of interest to complete the story of that tenth Falcon, now in my Historic Aircraft Collection. As I had been captivated by gliding since my schooldays, and had learned the "basics" ground hopping at Dunstable in the Slingsby Kirby Cadet (of John Sproule's very own design, by the way), it was not surprising that, as a National Service trade trainee at Cosford, I should hitch-hike to Church Stretton in 1949 and sample the joys of the Long Mynd, there seeing Espin Hardwick's "British Falcon" and his Petrel (of which, years later, I was to become the proud owner).
It would be fair to suggest that Hardwick's glider, BGA 163-the sole "Falcon I I " - was the first British production glider, since Fred Slingsby had built the very
first one "for himself. I saw it fly, but naturally was not allowed to fly it. It was burned owing to "glue failure" on the Mynd on Bonfire night 1955, though the vee struts frame Hardwick's portrait to this day, looking out from the top of the Mynd to the west in the Midland Gliding Club clubhouse.
Nearly 30 years later, in company with Martin Simons, whose recent book so superbly describes these early gliders, we journeyed to Kirkbymoorside to collect from George Burton, then MD of Vickers-Slingsby, a great mass of "early Slingsby drawings" found in the loft above Fred Slingsby's office. Andrew Coates {Jane's World Sailplanes, 1978) painstakingly sorted and catalogued literally hundreds of these, and gradually almost all of the early "Sling" types emerged:Kite I, Gulls I and II, Petrel, Hjordis, the \ -scale Baynes Bat, an unheard-of "Bacarole" (like a Kite I with a Rhonbuzzard wing), King Kite, and so on —and, to my great delight, the original drawings from which Fred Slingsby produced his own Falcon I.
Thus I conceived a plan to get together a team to build various components of a "Final Falcon" to fly as a tribute to both Fred Slingsby and to Espin Hardwick, who contributed so much to the establishment of the Midland GC. I approached various gliding folk, and indeed invited John Sproule to try his hand at the tailplane and elevator and certain metalwork.John also very neatly "reconstructed" rib profiles out by the wingtip, which were the only drawings missing. For various reasons this project failed to germinate in quite the way I had planned, and John took it from me and placed it with Ken Fripp's Southdown Aero Services at Lasham. Much toil and no little expenditure followed, culminating in Derek Piggot's first flight at the Vintage Glider Club Rally at Lasham last August 8, prepared by Ken and his son Mike shortly before the former's death.
Subsequently I purchased this aircraft, collecting it last October after one further brief a.s.i. calibration flight. It will, in time, keep company with Bill Manuel's original Willow Wren, the Hawkrige Nacelle Dagling, the Petrel, the Kite I, the Kranich II, the BAC Drone, and the other powered beauties it is my privilege to
preserve. The tenth and final Falcon carries a legend on its fuselage side: BRITISH FALCON. A replica of the first glider built by F. N. Slingsby which led to the formation of Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd. Construction by Southdown Aeroservices Ltd and J. S. Sproule". It does John, and all at Southdown Aeroservices, great credit.
My dream is one day to hillsoar it over the Long Mynd, Sutton Bank, and, hopefully, even the Wasserkuppe. It will make a nice contrast to my other current "extremes", a Boeing 767 and an ASW.20L. One will need care, because both have a better max L/D than the Falcon's reputed 1:18!Finally, I have produced a wealth of Photocopy for Herr Oberparleiter about British Falcons generally, but my letter has been returned in the post. If he will kindly contactme, confirming his address, I will re-post this material.
MIKE C. RUSSELL
Russavia Collection
Henham
Bishops Stortford
Herts CM22 6AY