The Fauvel AV.36 is a single-seat tailless glider designed in France in the 1950s by Charles Fauvel. Although the "AV" in AV.36 stands for Aile Volante (Flying Wing). It features two large fins mounted on stubby tail booms extending back from the wing's trailing edge, and accommodates the pilot within a stubby fuselage. The aircraft was designed to be quickly disassembled for road transport, with the nose detaching, and the fins able to fold back against the trailing edge of the wing. A refined version with a slightly longer wingspan, the AV.361 was introduced in 1960.
The AV.36 lent itself to easy motorisation, with some builders installing an engine at the rear of the cockpit pod to drive a pusher propeller turning between the tail fins, and the Bölkow factory manufactured some aircraft in this configuration as the AV.36 C11.
Plans for the AV.36 have not been available in France since Fauvel's death in 1979, but as of 2012 they are still available from Canadian supplier Falconar Avia of Edmonton, Alberta.
This is the 33rd Fauvel, with a one piece wing, constructed by Wassmer in France (serial 133) in 1955. It was brought to England in 1972, where it received BGA (British Gliding Association) certification number BGA 1999. It had last flown in 1975 and was later bought by Ian Dunkley who intended to restore it, but instead put his efforts into a 2-seater Fauvel AV-22, which he took to New Zealand.
This Fauvel had been languishing in a barn for nearly 40 years before it was brought to the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden. It was then completely restored at Booker in 2014 by Graham Saw. It is highly aerobatic and can perform loops in just over its own body length.
Filmed on 18th July 2020 at the Shuttleworth July Evening Drive In Airshow 2020.
Video and Audio content is
Copyright © 2020 High Flight
This video and audio material may not be reproduced in any form (except as the videos Youtube embedded video option on any other website), without written permission.
