Currently Owned by:  Mike Whitton, and others (Midland Gliding Club)

STATUS: Flying

LOCATION: Long Mynd

You can see the Long Mynd in the background of this picture . . .

No.21, registration CEA (Charlie Echo Alpha), BGA No. 1473, is a 18.8M Open Cirrus.  No. 21 was bought new by Ralph Jones and partners in the winter of 1967/68. Ralph was, and still is the UK Schempp-Hirth agent, as well as flying in the Riete and Wiener-Neustadt Worlds in the 80's, and fathering three gliding sons, two of whom have been UK Nationals winners, and one is the current World 18 meter champ. 

At one time the RAF was involved - - the military markings are still just visible under the finish. 

It was Ralph who extended the wing span from 17.8 to 18.8M in the winter of 1969-70. Klaus Holighaus had extended his own and others were extended to a factory drawing/mod scheme. Klaus, when pressed in the Schwabenstube in Kirchheim-Teck one night (over several glasses of Stuttgarter Hofbrau), to say what the absolute maximum for stressing would be came up with "no more than 19 meters with full water" so that was the intention, but careful measurement afterwards showed a few inches of safety margin. Klaus believed it to be the longest span Cirrus in the world. (Note: there were at least three other Cirruses with extended wings, No. 4,  No. 16 (a Cirrus B according to Schempp-Hirth and now believed to be in Germany), and No. 23, q.v.) 

Ralph's partner broke it on a field retrieve in summer 1970 - it was ground looped through a barbed-wire fence on tow behind a Thruxton Jackaroo (4 seater modified Tiger Moth) and broke the fuselage just behind the wing trailing edge.

 On repair, it was bought by Cranfield College of Aeronautics for research into aeroelastic structures. They test flew her to establish the true glide angle of 1in 42 (in 18.8M configuration). From these data they wrote a report proving that beyond 18.8M wing span there was no added advantage in any extra span!  But the performance measurement compared the actual performance at max cockpit load (i.e. c. of g. forward, no water) to the factory sales brochure polar. Since it matched that, and based on the flying Peter Purdie did in competitions later, his guess is that it WAS a significant improvement. The rate of roll was down, because the ailerons were not extended, and so ended even further from the wingtips.

No. 21 was bought in 1972 by the Empire Test Pilots School at RAF Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, to replace an Olympia. Certainly we have heard from a number of sources that as part of the Test Pilots Course students were given a check flight in a T31 (Sedburgh) and then sent solo on an Open Cirrus!  Apparently the landings were often 'interesting', as were the aerotows in T21s by two trainee pilots (neither of whom had had any glider training!). 

Peter G.H. Purdie bought it in November, 1974 when the gliding side of ETPS was sound up.  He flew it for three seasons, and then sold it in late 1977 to Tony Adams of the Sleap Gliding Club in Shropshire, not far from Long Mynd.