The sole Buxton Hjordis was a high-performance sailplane designed by G.M "Mungo" Buxton and built in 1935 by Slingsby Sailplanes Ltd. It was a single-seater of all-wood construction. Its straight-tapered, cantilever wing was pedestal-mounted and was without flaps or airbrakes. The fuselage was circular in cross section with the cockpit immediately in front of the wing leading edge and a wheel-less, single-skid main undercarriage. Aft, the fuselage tapered to carry a very small triangular fin, on which was mounted a much taller, wide chord rudder of rounded triangular shape and with a vertical leading edge. The horizontal tail was small and essentially all elevator apart from a leading-edge hinge.
Buxton began the design of a development, the Hjordis 2 which was completed and built by Slingsby Aviation as the King Kite.
The Hjordis first flew on 27 June 1935. It had been designed and built for the well-known British glider pilot, Philip Wills, and he flew it at the British National Gliding Competitions at Sutton Bank in September 1935.[1] He also flew it at the International Competition held between 14-47 July 1937 at the Wasserkuppe, Germany.[2] At that time it was registered as G-GAAA. The following year it went to South Africa as ZS-23.
Hjordis is a character in Norse mythology, the mother of Sigurd/Siegfried.