In 1967 Slingsby Sailplanes Limited built six Currie Wot based aircraft to represent the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5A for film work. They were powered by 115 hp Lycoming O-235 engines with dummy exhausts and other modifications as 0.83 scale replicas.
They were not modified Currie Wots but were built by Slingsby as a new type based in the Wot drawings, they differ considerably from the Wot. Gliding guru Derek Piggot oversaw the construction of the Slingsby versions, but due to a slight scaling error in design, the nose section was big and boxy. It had almost twice the frontal area, so a large part of the propellor arc was blanked and performance suffered.
They were delivered to Ireland and fitted with dummy guns for the film Darling Lili. These Slingbsy T.56 were referred to as Minis due to their not being full size reproductions. Many static mock ups were built by Slingsby at the same time for the Film Darling Lili.
Four additional SE-5s (N908AC, N909AC, N910AC & N912AC) built after The Blue Max for Darling Lili and used in You Can’t Win Them All, Von Richthofen and Brown and Zeppelin were technically Slingsby T56s, 7/8-scale replicas built on converted Currie Wot biplane kits. The latter two movies saw fatal crashes and the aircraft were soon after dispersed to private collections. They were all sold to The Fighting Air Command in Denton, Texas, in the early 1980s, by which time none of them were airworthy.
EI-ARH Slingsby T56 Currie Wot 1590 ex G-AVOT
Lynn Garrison dereg 2011
EI-ARI Slingsby T56 Currie Wot 1591 ex G-AVOU
N909AC Fighting Air Command dereg 21/1/11
EI-ARJ Slingsby T56 Currie Wot 1592 ex G-AVOV
N908AC Fighting Air Command (active)
EI-ARK Slingsby T56 Currie Wot 1593 ex G-AVOW
N912AC Fighting Air Command (active)
EI-ARL Slingsby T56 Currie Wot 1594 ex G-AVOY
N910AC Fighting Air Command dereg 21/7/11
One of our SE5 replicas returned Biggles Biplanes in the UK for restoration.
All Aero 