Short SB.1
The Short SB.1 was a British tailless glider designed by David Keith-Lucas and Professor Geoffrey T.R. Hill. Built by Shorts as a private research venture to test the concept of the aero-isoclinic wing, it was the first aircraft to incorporate this feature. It was in effect a one-third scale glider version of Keith-Lucas' ambitious preliminary design P.D.1, intended to meet the Air Ministry's (V bomber) specification B.35/46, which was the basis for the Avro Vulcan, the Handley-Page Victor and the Vickers Valiant. Design and development After extensive testing with wind-tunnel and flutter models, the design team proposed that a manned glider be built. Shorts (Belfast) undertook construction on a single-seat glider incorporating the "aero-isoclinic" wing originated by Professor Hill. This radical wing configuration was designed to maintain a constant angle of incidence regardless of flexing, by placing the torsion box well back in the wing so that the air loads, acting in the region of the quarter-chord line, have a considerable moment arm about it. The torsional instability and tip stalling characteristics of conventional swept wings were recognised at the time, together with their tendency to aileron-reversal and flutter at high speed. It was to prevent these effects that the