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Slingsby Type 38 Grasshopper

The Grasshopper is a primary glider intended, as the name suggests, to give basic training through short ‘hops’ on airfields or school playing fields. It was based on a pre-war German design but used the wings of the Slingsby Cadet Mk. I and was designed to be easily dismantled for storage.

It was launched by a V-shaped elastic rope pulled by teams of cadets and could also be mounted on a pivoting tripod stand to enable the effects of the controls to be demonstrated.

The Grasshopper and the virtually identical EoN Eton were used by ATC Squadrons and RAF Sections of the Combined Cadet Force from 1952 to the late 1980s. Many cadets made their first, somewhat brief, solo flights in these gliders.