| Prefect | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Second production Prefect TX.1WE980 in 1950. | |
| Role | Intermediate trainingglider Type of aircraft |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd |
| First flight | June 1948 |
| Primary user | Royal Air Force |
| Number built | c.53 |
| Developed from | Grunau Baby |
TheSlingsby T.30 Prefect is a 1948 British modernisation of the 1932 single-seatGrunau Babyglider. About 53 were built for civil and military training purposes.
In 1948, Slingsby Sailplanes developed the 1932Grunau Baby, which it had built under licence beforeWorld War II, into the Slingsby T.30 Prefect, an intermediate-level semi-aerobatic glider suitable for civil or military use. In the same year,Elliotts of Newbury introduced its version of the Grunau Baby, theBaby Eon; all three types were visually very similar, but differed slightly in dimensions, undercarriage, airbrakes, equipment and performance.[1]
The Prefect, like the Grunau Baby, was a single-seat fabric-covered wooden glider. It had high-mounted semi-cantilever straight-tapered wings, with a single wing bracing strut on each side, from the base of the fuselage to the wing spar. The span was 150 mm (6 in) greater than that of the Grunau Baby, and the tips enclosed the outer ends of the ailerons. Mid-chord airbrakes were fitted just outboard of the wing strut ends, extending above and below the wing. The fuselage was flat sided, and tapered from the trailing edge of the wing to a very small fin bearing a large, aerodynamically-balanced and slightly reshaped rudder that extended down to the keel. The straight-tipped tailplane, mounted on the top of the fuselage and braced from below, had a strongly swept leading edge and was placed with its trailing edge at the fin's leading edge, so that the elevators lacked the large cut out for rudder movement seen on the earlier glider. The open cockpit was better enclosed at the sides and had a small windscreen; for access, the cockpit sides and windscreen were removed as a single piece.[2] Slingsby also added a single-wheel undercarriage in addition to the earlier nose skid, placed below mid-chord.[3][4]
In June 1948, the Prefect made its first flight.[3] It was about 20 kg heavier than its predecessor, but despite a higher wing loading had a significantly betterlift to drag ratio, 21 compared with 17.[1]
The Prefect was sold both on the civil market, including theRoyal Air Force Gliding & Soaring Association (RAFGSA), and to theAir Training Corps (ATC) as thePrefect TX.Mk.1. 46 Prefects were built by Slingsby, with sales in Belgium, the Netherlands, Egypt, Israel and New Zealand.[5] TheRoyal Netherlands Aero Club had 9 of them.[6] The ATC had 15 Prefects.[5] In addition, Bedek Aircraft Ltd built about seven aircraft under licence in Israel.[7] Some surviving ATC aircraft, originally bearing RAF serials, transferred to civil registry.
At least fourteen Prefects still fly In 2019. These include the prototype in the UK (G-ALLF at Lasham heritage centre) and five other T30As in the Netherlands (PH-192,193,194,196,198). At Pentecost 4-6 june 2022 the dutch prefects were all at a meeting at gliding site Nistelrode(Netherlands), to celebrate their 70th anniversary, the dutch prefects are all build in 1951, and are flying in the Netherlands since 1952. Originally 8 planes, 5 are still surviving an airworthy.
The rest are mostly ex-RAF production T30Bs, six in the UK, two in Germany and one in the Czech Republic. Another T30B is "extant" in Sweden but it is not known if it is airworthy.[7]
Prefects are on display at theSouth Yorkshire Aircraft Museum,[8] at the oldRAF Doncaster site,Gliding Heritage Centre and atQueenstown Airport, New Zealand.[7]
Data fromEllison 1971, pp. 200, The World's Sailplanes:Die Segelflugzeuge der Welt:Les Planeurs du Monde[4][9]
General characteristics
Performance
Aircraft of comparable role, configuration, and era
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