Birmingham Guild

History

The original Moore Gypsy was the brainchild of Air Commodore Lawrence Patrick Moore, CBE, A.F.R.Ae.S. (born 27 Aug 1906, died 15 January1976 in Hereford) and designed by Sailplane Designs Ltd (Moore, J. Gibson and K. Emslie) in 1965. It was designed especially for use by clubs and small syndicates, with the emphasis on low running costs and capital outlay together with safe flying qualities. The design was offered to every glider and aircraft manufacturer in Britain, but rejected; eventually a prototype was built by the Birmingham Guild Ltd, a company specialising in metal components for the aircraft industry, and made its first flight from Pendeford airfield near Wolverhampton on 7 April 1970, piloted by Derek Piggott. The original wing design used a foam core to stabilise a thin skin, but when Birmingham Guild took up the design they wanted metal, and the BG-100/12 prototype first flew with 12m wings using 0.3mm dural skin.

A 13.46 m span BG-100/13.5 was first flown on 30 May 1971. A rebuild of the sole BG-100/12, it had new wings and an increased span tailplane of higher aspect ratio. The first pre-production Gypsy, the BG-135, originally designated Gypsy 12/15, flew in March 1972. It differed from the earlier versions chiefly in its wing construction, having the foam-stabilised thin skin of the BG-100s replaced by an aluminium alloy skinned D-box leading edge, based on the main spar, and with fabric covering between main and rear spars. Following some minor modifications, production of batch of seven was prepared. Birmingham Guild anticipated a follow-on batch of 20 aircraft and planned minimum production of 25 per year.

However, the sailplanes flying qualities were not well received and in 1973 Yorkshire Sailplanes bought the rights to the BG-135. Renamed the YS-55 Consort, production began in September 1973, the company at first completing four of the original Birmingham Guild aircraft. Some changes were carried out to the original design, notably in the fuselage profile, and the flying controls operated by rods instead of cables.

In 1975 Yorkshire Sailplanes was declared bankrupt and the jigs and materials were acquired by Bryan Swales of Swales Sailplanes, of Long Street, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, who developed an improved version called SD-3. However, little of the original design by now remained. The wingspan was increased to 15m, and the detail parts redesigned for production in a small workshop. The prototype SD3-15 was built for Swales by Gerry Kemp and Jim Beck. The original V-tailed SD3-15 (later designated SD3-15V) first flew in July 1975 and the SD3-15T, a T-tailed version, flew in December 1976. Production ceased in 1979.

Company References

1. Sailplane and Gliding, April-May 1976
2. Flight 14 Dec 1972
3. Flight 9 Aug 1973
4. Flight 21 Aug 1975
5. Flight 12 Mar 1977
6. http://all-aero.com/index.php/60-gliders/15215-swales-sd3-15