What is the Super Glider (1930)?

[BrianF]

Hi experts, when I first saw this video


I thought a Mu3 or Avia 41P and didn't think much more of it, I recently watched the video again and looked at it more attentively , the tail arrangement does not match either.

What is the identity of this sailplane? Losing sleep over it now ..............

[Jilles]

seen thie as well in the past and have no idea what type or model it is, Wondering if it actually flew
Maybe Vince Cockett with his vast library on vintage plywood has info.

[BrianF]

My leg is in a cast, I can't safely get around my workshop at the moment so I decided to research this glider. I've spent the whole day searching the net looking at a LOT of early era gliders, focusing on 1928 to 1933, many I've never seen before. I've looked through my Martin Simon's book covering the era and The Vintage Glider Club Book. Nothing has that fin to stab arrangement. The buildings look more European than British, so I looked at gliders either side of the channel. Using very rough estimations it appears to be up to 18m span, which is big. Very short fuselage for the span. As Jilles suggested, perhaps it never made it into the air.

[VinceC]

It looks like a Cambridge, they had one at the London Gliding Club in the 30's

[Max Wright]

A Cambridge with twice the wingspan.

So that's 2:1 scale, or something?

[VinceC]

???? Explain

[Peter Balcombe]

Well the wing does appear to be at adult shoulder height rather than much lower as shown in Vince’s photos?

[Max Wright]

A Cambridge with twice the wingspan.

So that's 2:1 scale, or something?

Well, it looks the same shape as the Cambridge, but at least the wingspan looks like it's twice as big.

So, instead of being 1:4 (quarter scale), or 1:1 (full size); perhaps its 2:1 (twice full size)?

[VinceC]

Still don't understand. It is not a model, but the full size.

Here are some more from my archive.Remeber, there are 2 versions, what the differences are I haven't looked into, but the top of the Fin is one area

The wing appears to come in 4 pieces

[Max Wright]

I realise that it's not a model. If you look at the photos in Brian's original post, the wings are roughly twice as long as the Cambridge - while the outline is similar to the Cambridge.

So maybe it's an experimental aircraft, scaled up from the Cambridge?

Or maybe someone wanted to build a huge glider and the outline of the fuse just turned out to look like the Cambridge?

It will be fun if we can find out what happened.