| Phantom | |
|---|---|
| Role | Single seat high performance sailplane |
| National origin | United Kingdom |
| Manufacturer | Cloudcraft Glider Co., Southampton |
| Designer | Roger Dickson |
| First flight | 11 June 1931 |
| Number built | 1 |
| Unit cost | £300, ex-works 1931 |
The Cloudcraft Phantom was a glider designed in the United Kingdom in 1931 to make long flights. It set an unofficial duration British record but vandalism prevented a cross-Channel attempt.
Contents |
The Phantom was a single-seat, clean, high-performance glider designed for Mr Percy Michelson with distance records and a cross-channel flight in mind.[1] It was an all-wood aircraft, built of spruce and plywood.[2] The wing had a single spruce spar with stressed ply to the leading edge forming a torsion box.[2] At the time, the choice of the biconvex R.A.F. 34 airfoil was unusual, the concave/convex Göttingen forms being generally used.[2] The wing was high mounted on a long, shallow pylon just behind the open cockpit, braced with a single lift strut on each side.[2][3]
Its tailplane was low mounted and the rudder rounded and generous, mounted on a narrow fin. It landed on a long skid reaching from the nose to well behind the wing trailing edge.[2][3]
The Phantom first flew on 11 June 1931.[3]
The Phantom gained its Certificate of Airworthiness in November 1931.[3] Advertisements from July 1931 show that Cloudcraft hoped to sell the Phantom equipped as both Standard and Special models[4] but the company closed for business at the end of 1931, so only was built.[3]
One of the Phantom's earliest outings was to the glider demonstration at Bunster Hill, overlooking Ilam, Staffordshire, on 27-28 June 1931, one of the Lyons Tea meetings. Unfortunately, some of the ply became detached near the cockpit and no flights were made.[5] The month after its maiden flight, the repaired Phantom demonstrated its intended long-duration ability by unofficially breaking the British glider duration record with a flight of over 4¼ hours. The pilot was "Mungo" Buxton.[2] It was the first time that the time set by Maneyrol in the Peyret Tandem at the British Glider Competition nine years earlier had been bettered by a British pilot and aircraft in Britain.[2]
Its owner, Michelson, intended to try for the Cellon prize for an unpowered cross-English Channel flight[1] but the aircraft was seriously damaged by vandals on the cliffs near Dover.[6] He could not afford to have it repaired and put it up for sale in 1932.[7] The remains were bought by the Bradford and County Gliding Club in April 1933.[6] It seems they wanted it for its instruments and launch rope,[6] for the Phantom was too lightly built for club work.[1] The remains ended up at the Slingsby Aviation works at Kirbymoorside; they were there in 1938[3] but may have been burned during World War II.[6]
Data from Ellison[3]
General characteristics
Performance
|
||||||||||||||
