March 4, 2019

60 years on, Leighton Park’s glider crew reunite

An astonishing episode in Leighton Park’s history was the building and flying of a school glider by the boys with teacher John Simpson, in the 1950s and 1960s. To mark the 60th anniversary of the official launch of “Min” the glider, the Design and Technology Department are planning to build a scale model of the original Slingsby T21.

A number of Old Leightonians who were either involved in building the glider or who were pilots, came back to talk to the teachers about the original project. The facilities in the modern workshop compared to the old “Hobby Sheds” made their jaws drop!

We were delighted to discover some film of the glider: Leighton Park features at 5:10 minutes.

Jonathan Jewkes recalled ” The Slingsby company sold gliders in kit form, which LP bought a bit at a time (starting with just the rudder, then the fuselage). Construction involved carefully glueing all the wooden parts together. However the construction group had some good fortune – having demonstrated that they were capable of constructing the fuselage, someone donated the wings with their framework completed. The leading edges of the wings, and the cockpit, were covered in plywood, but the rest of the wings and much of the fuselage were covered with fabric (the same system as many older planes, including the wartime Hurricane fighter). The fabric had to be carefully attached to the frame, and then treated with “dope” which shrunk and tightened the fabric. The dope is very volatile so I guess it was done out in the open.”

In 1963, disaster struck and the glider was badly damaged in strong winds; the insurance pay-out enabled the purchase of “Moomin”, a fibreglass glider, a Slingsby T49.

Jonathan continues “I had my first lessons on the original Min which was nice to fly, and the open cockpit enhanced the feeling of being in the air; also it flew slowly this making landings not too bumpy. Launching was done by being towed on a long cable behind a pick-up truck, and we could get up to 1,000 ft. But it was too slow to be able to be launched by being towed by a powered plane. Moomin felt more like a “proper” plane, flew somewhat faster, and the enclosed cockpit was more comfortable in cold weather. Although most of our flights continued to be launched by tow truck, Moomin also made it possible to be launched by aero-tow, meaning that we could be taken higher. This increased height was needed if we wanted to practise spin recovery – at least 2,000 ft was required. (You do not want to be in a spin, but it can happen if the wrong circumstances occur. If left unchecked it is dangerous, and the recovery procedure is somewhat counter-intuitive. Therefore before being allowed to fly solo we had to do an exercise in which we would purposely make the plane spin, then practise the recovery). So there was a bit of a silver lining in the destruction of the original Min.”

 

Leighton Park's Glider Crew reunite outside doors

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