The Aeromot AMT-200 Super Ximango is a Brazilian motor glider developed from the AMT-100 Ximango but fitted with a Rotax 912 engine.

Built from glassfibre, the Super Ximango is a low-wing cantilever monoplane with conventional landing gear and a T-tail. Powered by front-mounted 80 hp Rotax 912A, it has an enclosed side-by-side cockpit for two. The wings fold for storage or transportation.

Variants

AMT-200
Rotax 912A powered variant in the Utility category.
AMT-200S
Rotax 912S4 powered variant in the Utility category.
AMT-200SO
Reconnaissance variant of the AMT-200S in the Restricted category.

The Aerotechnik L-13 Vivat is a metal two-seater motorglider built in series from 1975 to 1999 in the Czech Republic .

Designed by Karel Dlouhy, it is a side-by-side two-seater using the wings (without the flaps but with the airbrakes), the empennages and the rear part of the fuselage of the famous LET L 13 Blanik glider . The central and forward parts of the fuselage have been modified to accommodate a side-by-side cockpit covered with a one-piece molded canopy rising towards the rear and a 60 hp Walter Mikron IIIAE engine driving on the prototype a propeller in Hoffman fixed pitch wood. The aircraft is based on a single-track undercarriage (a retractable fork in the fuselage and a fixed rear castor) and roller topping lifts at the wingtip that rise under the salmon in flight. The first mass-produced version in 1975 ( L-13SW Vivat, later renamed L-13SEH ) gave rise to several versions, details of which can be found below. Around 200 examples were built, with more than 150 exported worldwide. Evektor ceased production of this aircraft in 1999 to concentrate on manufacturing Eurostar two-seaters .

Variants

L-13SE Vivat: Only model fitted with flaps, Mikron IIIAE engine.
L-13 SEH Vivat: Standard model (ex L-13SW ) with Mikron IIIAE engine driving a three-position Hoffman propeller.
L-13SL Vivat: Standard model with 67 hp Limbach L200E01 engine driving a constant speed Muhlbauer propeller.
L-13SDLiva Vivat: Version of the previous one equipped with a classic fixed main landing gear, with removal of the topping lifts.
L-13SDM Vivat: Model with Mikron IIIAE engine equipped with a conventional fixed main gear.

The AK-5 is a single-seat club class sailplane designed and built in Germany by members of Akaflieg Karlsruhe.

The forward fuselage of the glider was taken from the Glasflügel 604 and the wings were built to the design of the Streifeneder-Hansen Falcon glider, an experimental prototype designed and built by Hansjörg Streifeneder. The cockpit interior was newly designed including a self-designed and built flight director / variometer system and parallelogram control input system similar to Glasflügel practice.

The experience gained while building the new winglets for the AK-8 glider will be used to improve the performance of the AK-5. It is planned to build extensions to the existing wings and to attach winglets.

The Alisport Silent 2 Electro is an Italian mid-wing, single-seat motor glider, designed and produced by Alisport of Cremella and provided as a complete ready-to-fly aircraft. The aircraft was introduced at the Aero show held in Friedrichshafen in 2011.

The Silent 2 Electro was derived from the Alisport Silent 2 Targa and differs primarily in having the front electric sustainer with its nose-mounted electric motor and propeller and associated batteries and controllers. It was originally called the Silent Targa E.

The aircraft is made from composites and features a T-tail. The wing skins are made from a composite sandwich built over pultruded carbon fibre spars. Its 13.3 m (43.6 ft) span, elliptical planform wing employs a 16% IMD 050 airfoil, has an area of 8.9 m2 (96 sq ft) and mounts flaperons. The bubble canopy tips up for access and has a built-in vent. The landing gear consists of a retractable main monowheel gear, a fixed (or optionally steerable) tail wheel and faired polymer wing tip wheels. The 22 kW (30 hp) electric motor is powered by two lithium polymer battery packs mounted near the aircraft's center of gravity, totalling a capacity of 4.3 kWh and weighing 15.5 kg (34.2 lbs). The nose-mounted propeller folds alongside the aircraft's nose when not powered to reduce drag and self-deploys when power is applied. The propeller mounting location eliminates the need for a retractable pylon and allows instant restarts of the engine without preparation, at any time in flight.

The take-off distance on asphalt is 140 m (459 ft) and the engine gives a climb rate of 2.0 m/s (400 ft/min).

The SZD-59 can be flown with a 13.2m span or a 15.0m span. Attaching or detaching the wing-tips takes only a few minutes. With 15m wing-tips it is a competitive Club Class glider, while it is a competitive aerobatic glider in the 13.2m configuration.

The SZD-59 Acro was derived from the SZD-48-3 Jantar Standard 3 in 1990-91 mainly by Jan Knapik. The fuselage is only a slightly modified version of the one used in the Jantar Standard 3. However, the T-tail has been replaced by a cross-tail with larger rudder and the elevator of the SZD-42-2 Jantar 2.

For soaring and aerobatics details, click here.

The M&D Flugzeugbau AVo 68 Samburo is a two-seat motor glider, first designed and manufactured in Austria.

The aircraft is of typical motorglider configuration, with a tractor propeller and long, tapering wings. As originally designed, it also had a sailplane-like undercarriage consisting of a single mainwheel and a steerable tailwheel; however, later versions have a fixed taildragger undercarriage with two spatted mainwheels. The pilot and passenger sit side by side. With numerous design changes - including modern Rotax engines, state-of-the-art avionics, and aerotow capabilities, it is still in production by the M&D Flugzeugbau company in Germany.

Variants
AVo 60 Samburo
The initial prototype powered by a 60 PS (44 kW) Limbach engine.
AVo 68 Samburo
Production aircraft powered by 68 PS (50 kW) Limbach engines.

The AMS-Flight Carat A is a single-seat, high performance motorglider. The sailplane was originally designed and built by Technoflug in Germany and is now manufactured by AMS-Flight in Slovenia.
 

The Carat was designed by Technoflug around the wings and horizontal tail of the Schempp-Hirth Discus sailplane, marrying these to a new fuselage, fin, undercarriage and engine.. Structurally the aircraft is a mixture of fibreglass and carbon fibre composites. The wings have PVC foam cores. In plan the wings have parallel chord inner panels and two outer sections of increasing straight taper. Winglets are an option. Schempp-Hirth type airbrakes are mounted on the upper surfaces of the inner panels, with turbulators on the underside to ensure a controlled boundary layer transition from laminar to turbulent flow without separation. The wings have 3° of dihedral.

Though the Discus and the Carat share wings, they position them differently: the Discus is a mid-wing aircraft, the Carat a low-wing one. Like the Discus, the Carat has a high T-tail with separate tailplane and elevators. The tailplane, like the wings, is detachable for easy transport. The cockpit, enclosed in a large clear single piece canopy, is at the trailing edge of the wing, with the main spar under the pilot's knees. The Carat has a conventional electrically-operated inwardly retractable undercarriage. The main wheels have hydraulically operated disc brakes and there is a parking brake. The non-retractable tailwheel is steerable.

The Carat is powered by an air-cooled, four cylinder, Volkswagen derived, 40 kW (54 hp) Sauer S1800 piston engine. This drives the unique feature of the Carat, its folding two blade propeller: the blades fold forward like spears to minimize drag when the engine is off. This is in contrast to other motorgliders which mostly either store the propeller inside the fuselage, or merely feather the propeller blades. The Carat's propeller is opened by the centrifugal force on the turning blades, working against a folding force provided by a gas damping spring mechanism. This folding mechanism has the advantage of simplicity, but it means that the engine can not be windmill-started if the battery is flat. Because of the forward pointing blades when the engine is off, the Carat cannot be towed aloft like traditional sailplanes.

The first flight was made on 16 December 1997 and the first production model displayed at Aero '99 at Friedrichshafen in April 1999 as the Technoflug TFK-2 Carat. Certification was achieved in 2003, by which time marketing had been passed to AMS.

Six production aircraft had been built by the end of 2003 and thirty one by September 2009. The majority of these were flying in the United States, the rest mostly in Western Europe.

In February 2015 the New Mexico State Legislature named the Zuni the Official State Glider.

The Zuni was built using glass-fibre/epoxy resin composite materials, with particular attention to achieving laminar flow. Using the classic pod and boom layout developed by the German glider manufacturers, the Zuni uses a modified Wortmann 67 series aerofoil section in a relatively thin double taper wing, (19% at the root to relieve bending moments, rapidly thinning to 15% 0.9m outboard, 14% at the taper intersection and 13% at the tip) which is high set on the fuselage with 1o dihedral, (reducing drag from interference of the wing fuselage junction). The integrally moulded fin supports the slightly swept all-moving T-tail, with a small degree of reflex camber and a partially mass-balanced rudder. The mono-wheel main undercarriage is manually retractable and a faired tailskid supports the rear fuselage on the ground. Water ballast is carried in integral tanks housed inside the leading edges of the wings, holding 219.8 litre (58 gal) 220 kg (484 lb).[3] Conventional control surfaces were fitted, with pitch and roll controlled by a sidestick, and rudder by pedals. The entire trailing edge consists of flaps inboard, out to about ⅔ span with ailerons outboard which also drooped when the flaps were deployed.

For more information, click here.

Specifications below are for the Zuni II.

The Aviastroitel AC-4 Russia is a Russian mid-wing, single-seat glider designed by Vladimir Egorovich Fedorov and produced by Aircraft Cooperative Mechta, which became Aviastroitel, now Glider Air Craft.

The aircraft is sometimes referred to as the Federov AC-4 Russia, Mechta AC-4, Fedorov Me7 Mechta, Kenilworth Me7, AS+ Ltd AC-4 or Aircraft Cooperative Mechta AC-4 Russia. It is currently marketed as the Glider Air Craft Solo AC-4.

The aircraft started out in 1989 as Fedorov's "Dream" project for the OSTIV World Class Sailplane 1993 design contest. It went through several design prototypes, named Mechta I, Mechta II and Russia I and II. The Russia II was the version submitted to the competition. The bid involved forming a new concern, the Aircraft Cooperative Mechta and building three hand-made prototypes. The aircraft performed well in the competition and the fly-off held in Oerlinghausen, Germany, but the lack of a manufacturing facility behind the design, plus political pressures put the design in second place, with the Polish Politechnika Warszawska PW-5 winning.

The American team at the competition was very impressed with the Russian design, thought it would sell well for Club class and student solo flying and bought one of the three prototypes to take home with them. The aircraft proved popular and so a US distributorship under the name Russia 12.6 was set up to sell the Russian production. Since the Aircraft Cooperative Mechta could not mass-produce the aircraft they reformed as Aviastroitel. In 1994 US distribution was transferred to Mechta Sailplanes, LLC, which imported 18 Russia gliders. Aviastroitel created a second set of molds to respond to the demand and started a second assembly line with a total production capacity of 48 AC-4s per year. In 1997 William Ayd became US distributor under the name Russia Sailplanes, Inc. Production of the AC-4 was suspended in 2003 when the Russian government changed the requirements for industrial production, making building them uneconomical. In 2010 Aviastroitel became Glider Air Craft and production resumed.

The aircraft is made from fibreglass. Its 12.6 m (41.3 ft) span wing employs a Wortmann FX-60-157 airfoil. The AC-4 can be fitted with a McCulloch MC-101B two-stroke engine of 12 hp (9 kW) that will sustain flight. A Ballistic Recovery Systems parachute is optional.

Sixty Russias were completed, some as complete non-certified aircraft and some as kits for amateur construction.

For operational history and variants, click here.

The Bailey-Moyes Tempest, is an Australian-American high-wing, strut-braced, single-seat, microlift glider that was designed by Bob Bailey of Florida, United States and produced by Moyes Microlights of Waverley, New South Wales, Australia.

The Tempest is a development of the Advanced Aeromarine Sierra and was designed to be towed aloft behind an ultralight aircraft.

The aircraft's 42 ft (12.8 m) span wing is made from aluminium tubing covered in Dacron and is supported by a single lift strut on each side, plus a jury strut. The fuselage is made from fiberglass and features a canopy that is hinged on one side for cockpit access. The cockpit is 22 in (56 cm) wide. The landing gear is either a monowheel gear or, optionally, bicycle gear.

Although very light, with a standard empty weight of 200 lb (91 kg), the Tempest does not qualify under the US FAR 103 Ultralight Vehicles regulations as a hang glider, neither is it foot-launchable. When it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit, that required an estimated 200 hours to complete, or as a complete ready-to-fly aircraft. In 1998 the kit was US$10,000 and the complete aircraft was US$12,500. Twelve were reported as flying by the end of 2001.

The Beaufort Gliding Club Zephyrus, designed to American standards, is a two place, high-wing, strutted monoplane.  It was originally designed as a single-seat glider in Melbourne during the late 1940's by club member Douglas Lyon. The design was modified to a high-performance two-seat configuration in 1951 and construction was commenced by the Beaufort Gliding Club shortly thereafter. Declining membership in the fifties delayed construction and it was not until 1966 that the glider first flew. It has a fuselage of steel tube framework covered with fabric.  The wings are of glued wooden construction and have a single main spar. This spar is continuous and straight between the wing root and the wing tip. Casein glue has been used throughout the wing and the timbers used have been spruce for solid sections and birch for plys. A rear false spar carries the aileron along its outer portion. A drag spar runs between the rear fuselage attachment fitting and the strut attachment fitting on the main spar. An unusual feature is that the rear cockpit is accessed through a hinged door on the starboard side. The Zephyrus soars well and has made many good cross-country flights including several in excess of 300 kms. In 1988 the Zephyrus was placed first on handicap in the Australian National Two-Seat Championships, flying against the more modern Janus and Twin Astir sailplanes.

(From the Beaufort Gliding Club website.)

The Brditschka HB-3, HB-21 and HB-23 are a family of motor gliders of unorthodox configuration developed in Austria in the early 1970s.

The unusual design was based on work done by Fritz Raab in Germany in the 1960s. The pilot and passengers sit in a fuselage pod with the engine and propeller behind them. The pod also carries the fixed tricycle undercarriage and the high cantilever wing. The tail is carried on a pair of booms that emerge from the top and bottom of the fuselage pod, the upper of which passes through the propeller hub. The HB-21 has a conventional tail and has two seats in tandem accessed by a sidewards-hinged canopy, while the HB-23 has a T-tail and side-by-side seating accessed via gull-wing doors in the canopy.

The Militky MB-E1 was a modified HB-3 with an 8-10 kW (11-13 hp) Bosch KM77 electric motor. It was the first full-sized, manned aircraft to be solely electrically powered. Flights of 12 minutes duration at up to an altitude of 380 m (1,247 ft) were just within the Ni-Cd battery's capacity. Its first flight was on 23 October 1973.

Variants
Brditschka HB-3
Single seat powered sailplane, powered by 31 kW (42 hp) Rotax 642 engine, 12.00 m (39 ft 4 in) wingspan.
HB-Flugtechnik HB 21
Tandem two-seat derivative of HB-3 with longer span (16.24 m (53 ft 3 in)) wings.
HB-Flugtechnik HB 21/2400
HB-Flugtechnik HB 21/2400 B
HB-Flugtechnik HB 21/2400 V1
HB-Flugtechnik HB 21/2400 V2
HB-Flugtechnik HB 23/2400
HB-Flugtechnik HB 23/2400 SP
HB-Flugtechnik HB 23/2400 Scanliner
Observation version of HB-23 with bubble canopy and provision to carry FLIR or LLTV pods under the wings.
HB-Flugtechnik HB 23/2400 V2

Militky MB-E1
electrically powered version.

The CVT M-200 was a two-seat glider that was designed in Italy and built in Italy and France from 1963.

Designed by Alberto and Piero Morelli, the M-200 was built by the Turin Gliding Centre (Centro di Volo a Vela – Turin) under contract with the Aero Club of Italy (Aero-club d'Italia). The M-200 is a two-seat glider with dual controls with generally similar layout to the single seat M-100 but with greater dimensions. Conventional wooden-frame structure and plywood skinning were used for the fuselage with a single-spar wing covered in plywood and fabric. Accommodation for two is provided in the staggered seat cockpit covered by a sideways hinging canopy. With relatively high performance for its day, the M-200 proved to be easy to fly both for early solo pilots and for advanced aerobatics.

The M-200 was also built in France by CARMAM as the M-200 Foehn.

The Schneider DFS 108-14 SG-38 Schulgleiter (German for 'school glider') is a German high-wing, cable-braced, single-seat primary glider that was designed by Schneider, Rehberg and Hofmann at Edmund Schneider's factory at Grunau in 1938, hence the designation. It was produced by several builders, including Deutsche Forschungsanstalt für Segelflug (DFS).

The SG 38 was designed to be a training glider for basic flight training by the Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps (NSFK). The usual launch method was by bungee cord from a sloped hill. Because training was conducted solely by solo flight the aircraft had to be very easy to fly and also easy to repair.

The high-wing design uses a kingpost and cable bracing. The primary structure of the glider is of wood, with the wings, tail surfaces and inverted "V" kingpost all finished in doped aircraft fabric covering. The pilot sits on a simple seat in the open air, without a windshield.

The basic configuration was similar to earlier gliders such as the Stamer Lippisch Zögling and the Grunau IX, but the SG 38 was an entirely new design. Improvements included enlarged tail surfaces for better stability, a separate skid mounted on shock-absorbing springs, and an updated seat for the pilot.

The SG-38 played a critical role in pilot training for the Luftwaffe in the Second World War, as a simple, but robust, trainer for the rapid increase in the number of pilots needed by Germany. It was commonly flown by bungee launch on the slopes of the Wasserkuppe.

From 1949 to 1951 Spain's AISA produced 50 licence-built aircraft.

In the UK, Elliotts of Newbury built a copy of the SG.38 called the Elliotts Primary EoN; its version first flown in 1948 and used by the RAF as the Eton TX.1.

Number built    about 10,000.

The series started with the Hoffmann H36 Dimona, a touring motorglider introduced in the early 1980s. The aircraft were initially produced by Hoffmann Flugzeugbau, which became HOAC Flugzeugwerk and later Diamond Aircraft Industries.

Built entirely from fibreglass, the H36 family all use a Wortmann FX 63-137 airfoil. The wings feature top-surface Schempp-Hirth-style airbrakes. Optionally, the wings can be folded by two people in a few minutes to allow storage. The original H36 has 16.0 m (52.5 ft) wings, while the later members of the family added slightly greater span. The H36 offers a 27:1 glide ratio, while later variants improved that by one point, to 28:1 by adding winglets increasing the span to 16.33 m (53.6 ft). Cockpit accommodation seats two in side-by-side configuration, under a hinged bubble canopy that is pushed up and backwards.

The series are type certified in Europe and North America. The H36 received its US Federal Aviation Administration certification on 9 July 1986. Due to its fibreglass construction, the US certification includes the restriction "All external portions of the glider exposed to sunlight must be painted white except of (sic) wing tips, nose of fuselage and rudder."

In March 1987 an improved variant was developed by Dieter Köhler and the subsequent HK36R first flew with a Limbach L2400 engine in October 1989.

When equipped with the larger available engines, particularly the 86 kW (115 hp) Rotax 914 turbocharged powerplant, the aircraft can be used for glider towing. A commercial success, more than 900 H36s and HK36s have been completed.

The HK36 provided the basis from which the Diamond DV20 Katana from which the improved DA20 and four-seat DA40 series were later developed.

For operationalhistory, and details of the 10 variants, click here.

Specifications below are for the original Hoffmann H36 Dimona.

The Distar UFM-13 Lambada (named for the Brazilian dance) is a Czech shoulder-wing, two-seat motor glider originally designed and produced by Urban Air and now built by Distar Air of Ústí nad Orlicí.

The Lambada was designed to comply with the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale microlight rules at a gross weight of 472.5 kg (1,042 lb) and US light-sport aircraft rules at 600 kg (1,323 lb). The design is on the Federal Aviation Administration's list of approved special light-sport aircraft.

The aircraft features a cantilever wing, a T-tail, a two-seat side-by-side enclosed cockpit under a bubble canopy, fixed tricycle or conventional landing gear with a steerable tail wheel and a single engine in tractor configuration.

The aircraft is made from composites. Its 13 m (42.7 ft) span wing employs a SM 701 airfoil, has an area of 12.16 m2 (130.9 sq ft) and flaperons with spoilers or optionally ailerons and dive brakes. Flaperon settings are 0°, 5°, 9° and 16°, with the last setting assisted by the spoilers. The wings can be extended to 15 m (49.2 ft) with wing tips for soaring. The main landing gear legs are fabricated from fibreglass laminates and the wheels are equipped with single lever hydraulic brakes. Standard engines available are the 80 hp (60 kW) Rotax 912UL and the 85 hp (63 kW) Jabiru 2200 four-stroke powerplants.

The aircraft achieves a 26:1 glide ratio with 13 m wings and 30:1 with 15 m wings fitted. Aside from its use as a motorglider, the Lambada has also been successfully employed as a glider tug.

The JK 01A Elf was designed by Krawczyk, based on the earlier work of American designer Alex Strojnikun. It features cantilever wings, a single-seat enclosed cockpit under a bubble canopy, fixed landing gear and a single engine in pusher configuration.

The aircraft is made from composites. Its 11.12 m (36.5 ft) span wing has an area of 10.80 m2 (116.3 sq ft), flaperons and provides a glide ratio of 26:1. The standard engine used was a 20 hp (15 kW) JPX D-320 two-stroke, but this engine is no longer available and any small horizontally-opposed engine in the 20 hp (15 kW) range can be used. An engine of this power provides a takeoff run of 150 m (492.1 ft). The propeller used has a folding design to reduce drag and the fuel tank fitted has a volume of 15 litres (3.3 imp gal; 4.0 US gal). The landing gear uses dual, close-set mainwheels and a smaller nosewheel, with no wingtip wheels.

The company provides complete ready-to-fly aircraft and kits which offer the aircraft in various states of completion.

The first flight was made on 8 July 2006. There is no evidence of production beyond 2007/8.

The FFA Diamant (English: Diamond) is a family of Swiss high-wing, T-tailed, single-seat, FAI Standard Class and FAI Open Class gliders that was designed by engineering students under supervision of Professor Rauscher at the ETH Zurich and manufactured by Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein AG (FFA) of Altenrhein, Switzerland.

The Diamant is noted as the first glider that was built entirely from fiberglass, with no other materials, such as balsa, used as a sandwich.

The initial student prototype design used the wings from a Schleicher Ka 6, but these were replaced on production aircraft with Glasflügel H-301 wings.

FFA started manufacture of the 15 m (49.2 ft) wingspan Diamant HBV model as its first attempt to build a sailplane. The Swiss company had been part of Dornier Flugzeugwerke, but was split off as a separate company after the Second World War and was pursuing new lines of business.

FFA built three different models of the Diamant, the HBV, the 16.5, and 18. The early model 16.5 and 18s had issues with structural flutter at high speeds, but this was rectified by FFA for customer aircraft.

The HBV and 16.5 were type certified in the United States, while the 18 was in the Experimental - Racing category. The type certificate for the HBV and 16.5 requires that "all external portions of the glider exposed to sunlight must be painted white. Registration and Competition numbers must be painted blue-gray, or in any other light colours."

For details of the operational history and five variants, click here.

The Glaser-Dirks DG-500, and later the DG-505, is a two-seat glider of glass-reinforced plastic and carbon fiber reinforced plastic construction, manufactured in the DG Flugzeugbau GmbH in Bruchsal, Germany. It first flew in 1987.

The glider is a trainer with an 18-metre wingspan or a high-performance glider with 20 or 22 m span. There are also trailing edge flaps with the exception of the Trainer and Orion variants. The 20m version also has winglets. The fuselage has a single wheel main landing gear which retracts into the lower fuselage.

The DG-500/18 is mainly intended for flight training, and is fully aerobatic with +7/-5 g rating. There is also a motorglider version, the DG-500M. The DG-500/22 can carry up to 160 kg of water ballast which is not possible on the trainer version. Since 2004, the latest version of the DG-500 has been built as the "DG-505 Orion" in Slovenia.

The DG-500 once held the all-time altitude record for manned gliders, at 15,460 m (50,720 ft), set on 29 August 2006 by Steve Fossett and Einar Enevoldson, breaking the previous record by 1,713 ft (522 m). It was a standard DG-500M but the engine had been removed and replaced with liquid oxygen tanks. Additional instruments were installed powered by non-rechargeable batteries. The canopy had double-wall glazing and there was a drogue parachute for an emergency descent from high altitude. Pressure suits were worn. The glider is on display at the Seattle Museum of Flight. A new altitude record of 52,172 ft (15,902 m)[5] was set by the Windward Performance Perlan II on September 3, 2017.

Variants

DG-500
Initial production with 18 m (59 ft) span wings.
DG-500/18
Aerobatic version
DG-500/22
high performance sailplane with 22 m (72 ft) span wings
DG-500M
Motorglider version of the DG-500, powered by a retractable pylon mounted 44.7 kW (59.9 hp) Rotax 535C engine
DG-500T Elan Trainer
18 m (59 ft) span wings, fixed undercarriage, no flaps, full controls in both cockpits.
DG-505
improved DG-500
DG-505 Orion
Production version built in Slovenia
DG-505MB
Motorglider version of the DG-505 with a retractable Solo 2625-02 47 kW (63 hp) engine

Specifications below are for the DG-500T Elan Trtainer.

The Grob G109 is a light aircraft developed by Grob Aircraft AG of Mindelheim Mattsies in Germany. It first flew (G109 prototype and then Production G109A form) in 1980 the G109B followed in 1984. It is a two-seat self-launching motor glider in which the pilot and passenger or student sit side by side, with good visibility provided by large windows.

As well as normal civilian use this aircraft was also used in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Gliding Squadrons (VGS) to train Air Cadets through the Gliding Induction and Gliding Scholarship courses up until 5 May 2018, when it was retired from service. The Grob 109B was known in RAF service as the Vigilant T1. The G 109 was the first motor glider built using composite construction to be granted Federal Aviation Administration approval.

For details of the construction, development and variants, click here.

The aircraft is of T-tail configuration, and is fitted with a non retractable undercarriage and upper surface airbrakes. Of glass fibre construction, it is designed for training, high performance, and simple aerobatic flying.

The G103 Twin II (a.k.a. the Twin Astir II) is the successor of the original G103 Twin Astir with a nose wheel and a fixed six-inch main gear fitted behind the center of gravity - The main wheel is equipped with a hydraulic brake. Modified ailerons produce a substantially improved roll response compared to the previous model.

Operators include the Australian Airforce Cadets.

For more information, click here.

The Grob G 103 Twin Astir is a glass-reinforced plastic two-seat sailplane that was developed in Germany in the 1970s by Grob Aircraft AG as a counterpart to the single-seat G 102 Astir then in production. Construction throughout is similar, although to preserve the centre of gravity of the design, the wings were given a slight forward sweep. While many two-seat derivatives of single-seat sailplanes have fixed undercarriage, due to the added space restrictions created by the second seat, Grob devised a novel retraction system for the Twin Astir. The single wheel was designed to rotate 90° sideways before retracting "flat" under the rear seat, resulting in a rather unusual seating position. This was only incorporated in early examples, later on, the wheel was fixed. Factory options offered to customers included whether the front seat should be equipped with flight instruments, and whether water ballast capacity should be installed.

Production continued until around 1980, when it was replaced in production by the Twin II, a new and not directly related design originally designated G 118 but later redesignated the G 103a. The G 103a was in turn replaced by the Twin III in production in 1989.

The Twin was one of the first two-seat sailplanes built from fibreglass and has higher glide performance than most similar sailplanes of the time (e.g. Schleicher ASK 21, Scheibe SF 34 and SZD-50 Puchacz).

Australian Air Force Cadets currently operates 2 Twin Astirs as of 2020.

The BJ-1b Duster is a development of the earlier 41.5 ft. span BJ-1 Dynamite (designed by Ben Jansson and Hank Thor).

Approximately 400 sets of plans and 150 component kits have been sold to homebuilders. The Duster is entirely skinned in plywood. In accordance with former OSTIV rules it has terminal-velocity-limiting dive brakes (216 kph/ 116 kt./ 134 mph.

The Duster has been built in Canada and 10 other countries, and is type-certified in New Zealand. It is relatively simple to build but the 2.13 m./ 7 ft fixed center section provides a challenge for trailer design.

The Jonker JS-1 Revelation is a glider built of glass-fibre, carbon fibre and Kevlar. It is available with an 18-metre span for the 18 metre class or a 21-metre span for the Open class. The manufacturer is Jonker Sailplanes of Potchefstroom South Africa, founded in 2004 by two brothers, Attie and Uys Jonker. The structural and chief designer is Attie Jonker, while the airfoil and main aerodynamic features were developed by Johan Bosman in co-operation with the Delft University of Technology.

18 metre versions

The wing has full-span flaperons, an elliptical planform and uses winglets. It is in 4 pieces, each tip is 1.5 metres. Two novel features are:

• a double-hole blowing/suction system in the wings to minimise drag. The two rows of blow holes on the lower surface prevent turbulent flow at specific locations for different flap settings, thus reducing drag
• a jet engine for the self-sustaining version. A self-launching version was considered but it was decided that the fuselage would require extensive structural modification.

The first flight of the JS-1 was on 12 December 2006. Series production then started and up to July 2012 about 34 had been produced.

Attie Jonker won the 18 metre class South African National Championship in 2008 with a JS-1 Revelation.

A new version, JS1C-21m, with 3 metre wing-tips, which increase the span to 21 metres, has been developed. The first flight was on 22 March 2012. Because of the higher wing loads and increased maximum take-off mass of 720 kg (increased from 600 kg), the wing/wingtip junction has been redesigned including stronger wing spar caps and thicker wing-tip spars. All future JS1 Revelations will be compatible with the optional 21m wing-tips.

The new wing-tips have water tanks each with a capacity of 17 litres of ballast which can be jettisoned separately from the main wing and fin tanks.

Theoretical performance gives a claimed best glide of around 1:60 and, with the maximum wing loading of 58.7 kg/m2 and the polar remaining flat at high cruise speeds, the manufacturers state that it is competitive at the highest level with other Open Class gliders. The results (2nd, 3rd and three other places in the top ten in the 2014 World Gliding Championships Open Class supports this assertion.

EASA certification

The JS1-C is certificated in Europe by M&D Flugzeugbau as the JS-MD Single, with a retractable MD-TJ42 turbojet engine mounted behind the cockpit.

Variants

JS-1
18 meter wingspan prototypes
JS-1B
18 meter wingspan 18 metre class competition glider, production version.
JS-1C
21 meter wingspan Open class competition glider