Slingsby T.24 Falcon 4
Slingsby Sailplanes · United Kingdom · first flew 1946 · glider
The Slingsby T.24 Falcon 4 was a British two-seat tandem training glider designed just after the Second World War for the Air Training Corps. It was judged too expensive for production and only three were completed.
Recognition (WEFT)
| W — Wings | High-mounted, tapered |
|---|---|
| E — Engines | 1 × none, embedded-mounted |
| F — Fuselage | Wing carried on a pylon above the fuselage with lift struts to the lower fuselage longerons |
| T — Tail | Conventional |
WEFT is AircraftIQ's four-point recognition method — how it works.
Spot it by:
- Two-seat tandem training glider with the rear cockpit under the wing and the front cockpit close to the nose
- Wing carried on a pylon above the fuselage with lift struts to the lower fuselage longerons
- Straight, braced tailplane mounted on top of the flat-sided fuselage with a small fin and a generous horn-balanced rudder
Look for the pylon-mounted wing with a straight leading edge, rounded tips and a tapered trailing edge, and a braced tailplane set on top of a flat-sided fuselage.
Specifications
- The Slingsby T.24 Falcon 4 has a length of 8.76 m (29 ft).
- It has a wingspan of 16.56 m (54 ft).
- Typical crew: 2.
Figures are for the representative variant described above; marks differ. See how AircraftIQ sources figures.
History
The Falcon 4 was built to Air Ministry specification TX.8/45 and made its first flight in April 1946. All three were built by Martin Hearn Ltd of Hooton Park, Cheshire, and two of them were written off in accidents.
Variants
The first two aircraft had flaps over almost all of the trailing edge not taken by ailerons, while the third replaced the flaps with spoilers.
Where you'll see it
No orders followed because it offered no advantage over the Slingsby T.21. The surviving aircraft entered service with the ATC gliding school at Detling in 1949 and was sold in March 1953.
Related aircraft
- Slingsby Prefect
- Slingsby Grasshopper
- Slingsby T.41 Skylark 2
- Slingsby Kirby Gull
- Aero-Flight Streak
- Aquaflight Aqua I
- Auster J/4
- Avia Av-36 Bojar
AircraftIQ — the aircraft field guide: 8,606 recognition guides, live overhead identification, works offline.