The Mescalero was designed by Applebay in response to the
Soaring Society of America's 1970
Sailplane Design Competition. The competition was aborted and the glider was not completed until January 1975. The aircraft is named for the
Mescalero Apache tribe. The sole Mescalero completed was intended as a prototype for mass production and was registered in the
Exhibition/Racing category. Applebay decided not to put the aircraft into production and concentrated on the
FAI 15 metre Class Zuni instead, which did enter production. ==Operational history==