Slingsby Kirby Cadet

The Slingsby T.7 Kirby Cadet is a British training glider designed and built by Slingsby that first flew in 1935 and saw service with the Royal Air Force for use by the Air Training Corps as the Cadet TX.1 throughout the 1950, 1960s and 1970s.^[1]

T.7 Kirby Cadet
Role	Training glider
National origin	United Kingdom
Manufacturer	Slingsby
First flight	1935
Number built	376
Variants	Cadet UT-1

Design and development

The T.7 was developed to specification 20/43 from the civilian Kirby Kadet to meet an Air Ministry requirement for a training glider as part of the air cadet programme, and it entered service as the Cadet TX.1 with the Royal Air Force. It was further developed with a change of wing into the T.8 Kirby Tutor (service name Cadet TX.2) which in turn was developed into a two-seat version the T.31B Tandem Tutor (service name Cadet TX.3). One saw service in SLAF from 1957-1959.

Former operators

 United Kingdom

• Royal Air Force

 Sri Lanka

• Royal Ceylon Air Force

Specifications

Data from ^[2]

General characteristics

• Crew: 1
• Length: 20 ft 10.6 in (6.364 m) (later production)
• Wingspan: 41.7 ft (12.7 m)
• Wing area: 170 sq ft (15.8 m²)
• Aspect ratio: 8.67
• Airfoil: Göttingen 426
• Empty weight: 297 lb (134.5 kg)
• Gross weight: 513 lb (232.7 kg)

Performance

• Wing loading: 3.0 lb/sq ft (14.7 kg/m²)

See also

Related development

• Slingsby Kirby Tutor
• Slingsby Tandem Tutor

Related lists

• List of aircraft of the Royal Air Force
• List of gliders