Slingsby Prefect
Slingsby Sailplanes · United Kingdom · first flew 1948 · glider
The Slingsby T.30 Prefect is a 1948 British modernisation of the 1932 single-seat Grunau Baby glider. About 53 were built for civil and military training purposes.
Recognition (WEFT)
| W — Wings | High-mounted, tapered |
|---|---|
| E — Engines | 1 × none, embedded-mounted |
| F — Fuselage | Flat-sided fuselage tapering to a very small fin and large balanced rudder |
| T — Tail | Conventional |
WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.
Spot it by:
- High-mounted straight-tapered wings with a single bracing strut each side
- Flat-sided fuselage tapering to a very small fin and large balanced rudder
- Mid-chord airbrakes just outboard of the wing strut ends
A fabric-covered wooden single-seater with an open cockpit. The tailplane sits on top of the fuselage and is braced from below.
Specifications
- The Slingsby Prefect has a length of 6.49 m (21 ft).
- It has a wingspan of 13.72 m (45 ft).
- Its maximum speed is 167 km/h (104 mph).
- Typical crew: 1.
Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.
History
Slingsby Sailplanes developed the Grunau Baby, which it had built under licence before the war, into an intermediate-level semi-aerobatic glider. The Prefect first flew in June 1948 and had a lift-to-drag ratio of 21 against 17 for its predecessor.
Variants
The Royal Air Force Air Training Corps used it as the Prefect TX.Mk.1. Bedek Aircraft built about seven under licence in Israel.
Where you'll see it
Sales went to Belgium, the Netherlands, Egypt, Israel and New Zealand, and the Air Training Corps had 15. At least fourteen still flew in 2019.
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