Photograph:
Slingsby T-67B Firefly ZK-WAE (c/n 2028) at Ardmore, New Zealand in April 2012 (David C Eyre)
Country of origin:
United Kingdom
Description:
Two-seat training and touring monoplane
Power Plant:
(T-67B)
One 87 kw (116 hp) Avco Lycoming O-235 four-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine
Specifications:
- Wingspan: 10.59 m (34 ft 9 in)
- Length: 7.31 m (24 ft)
- Height: 2.51 m (8 ft 3 in)
- Wing area: 12.63 m² (136 sq ft)
- Max speed at sea level: 213 km/h (132 mph)
- Max cruising speed at 2,440 m (8,000 ft) at 75% power: 204 km/h (126 mph)
- Stalling speed: 85 km/h (53 mph)
- Max rate of climb at sea level: 201 m/min (660 ft/min)
- Service ceiling: 3,660 m (12,000 ft)
- Max range with 45 mins reserve: 835 km (519 miles)
- Empty weight: 610 kg (1,345 lb)
- Loaded weight: 862 kg (1,900 lb)
History:
The T-67 Firefly series was a development by Slingsby Aviation of the Fournier RF-6B two-seat aerobatic club trainer designed in the early 1970s. It was built with a steel-tube fuselage with fabric covering, and with a fabric covered wood wing. The prototype of the T-67 series, the T-67A (G-BIOW), was flown for the first time on 15 May 1981, this being a licence-built variant of the RF-6B. Some re-design took place and the type was re-engineered to be built in fibreglass by Slingsby Aviation of Kirkbymoorside, North Yorkshire, thus becoming the T-67B.
A number of models became available, these including the T-67B with the 87 kw (116 hp) Lycoming engine; the T-67C with a 119 kw (160 hp) Lycoming with a carburettor and fixed-pitch propeller; the T-67D with a 119 kw (160 hp) fuel-injected Lycoming, a constant-speed propeller, and 159 litres (35 Imp gal) of fuel in lieu of the base model’s 113 litre (24.8 Imp gal) tanks; the T-67M, being a T-67D aimed at the military market; and the T-67M-200 with a 149 kw (200 hp) fuel-injected Lycoming AETO-540-D4A5 engine driving a three-blade propeller.
A variant was chosen as the primary trainer for the US military forces and this model, known as the T-3A, was built in substantial numbers for the United States Air Force 557th FTS Academy in Colorado, replacing the Cessna T-41A Mescaleros, and with the AETCs 1st FTS at Hondo, Texas. Examples were also supplied to the Royal Hong Kong Air Force, the Canadian forces, and civil schools in Turkey, The Netherlands and Norway, these aircraft being responsible for training military pilots.
The T-67B was stressed to +6 and –3G and was fully aerobatic. Three examples of the series have been seen in this region. The first two were T-67Bs for a civil operator in New Zealand, becoming ZK-WAE (c/n 2028 – ex G-BLXD) and ZK-WAF (c/n 2029 – ex G-BLXE), originally registered to the manufacturer, Slingsby Aviation of Kirkbymoorside in the UK. They were put into service by the Waitemata Aero Club of New Zealand, being registered on 26 May 1986. However, the latter was lost in an accident in January 1990 and only ZK-WAE survives.
Later an ex-military T-67M-200 arrived in 2006 for a private owner in Auckland, this aircraft becoming ZK-TZX (c/n 2050 – ex G-CBHE, G7-125, SE-LBE, LN-TFE) on 21 December 2006. It had previously operated in Norway and Sweden before taking up residence in the United Kingdom as G-CBHE, moving to the flight line of the North Shore Aero Club in April 2007.