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Concept
Slingsby T.25 Gull 4
Summary
The Slingsby T.25 Gull 4 is a British glider designed and built by Slingsby that first flew in 1947.
After the Second World War Slingsby wished to produce a high-performance sailplane to be used in the Olympic games. The German DFS Meise, renamed Olympia, had already been chosen as the standard aircraft for the abandoned 1940 games and was produced in large quantities in several countries. The licence for the 'Olympia' was held by the Chilton Aircraft Company so Slingsby had no choice but to design his own version. Due to the identical specification and the use of state of the art construction the Gull 4 emerged with very similar features to the Olympia.
A replacement for the Kite 2 was proposed as the T.32 Gull 4B, but this glider did not reach the hardware stage.
The fuselage was of semi-monocoque wooden construction with plywood skinning throughout over longerons and built up frames, most of which were shared with the Slingsby T.26 Kite 2.
The wing was mounted on a narrowed pylon which faired into the cockpit canopy, reducing interference drag between fuselage and wing. A rubber sprung nose skid, landing wheel and sprung tail-skid completed the undercarriage. A large comfortable cockpit with an upright seat was covered by a canopy made from blown plexiglas, providing excellent visibility but sometimes giving a poor fit.
The cantilever two-part wing had a rectangular centre section and tapering outer sections from approximately 1⁄3-span. A thickened Göttingen 549 section was chosen for the wing root transitioning to Göttingen 549 at the fourth rib then to NACA 0009 at the tip with 5° wash-out at the tips. Large DFS-style airbrakes opening from the top and bottom surfaces aft of the main spar provided adequate approach control. Ailerons were fitted to the trailing edge over the outer 1⁄3-span. Constructed entirely of wood with steel fittings the single-spar wings had plywood-covered torsion boxes forming the leading edges, and fabric covering aft of the mainspars.
The fin was integral with the fuselage and also skinned with plywood.
Official source
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