The Nimbus 2 (developed from the 1969 22 m. Nimbus which George Moffat won the Open Class World Championships at Marfa, Texas in 1970) first flew in 1971. The four piece wing has flaps interconnected with the ailerons with settings which range from +6 to –8 degrees, with 20 degrees for landing. Later –2B and…
The Mini-Nimbus, which first flew in 1976, is a 15-meter racing class development of the Open Class Nimbus 2 with a new wing with both dive brakes and flaps, which may be operated seperately or together to provide unusually effective glidepath and landing control. Water ballast is carried in sealed tanks lying along the spar.…
The Standard Class Discus A first flew in 1984 using the fuselage and tail unit of the original Ventus with a new unflapped wing. The wing planform is noteworthy as being the first production sailplane to have the now common distictive shape where the leading edge sweepback increases towards the tip, establishing a worldwide trend…
Discus 2 – first impressions by Andreas Maurer ( article in rec.aviation.soaring) First, let me point out that it was the first prototype of a new airplane. Therefore anyone will see that nothing I’m going to say will be cemented for all times. A quick glance on Discus 2, registrated D- 6111 “D2″ shows a…
The original all-fiberglass Open Class Cirrus made its debut in 1967 and won the World Open Class Chapionship at Leszno in Poland in 1968. The prototype had a V-tail, but production versions had a conventional horizontal tail the with horizontal stabilizer set part way up the fin. In addition to top-and-bottom spoilers, the Cirrus has…
The Standard Class Discus A first flew in 1984 using the fuselage and tail unit of the original Ventus with a new unflapped wing. The wing planform is noteworthy as being the first production sailplane to have the now common distictive shape where the leading edge sweepback increases towards the tip, establishing a worldwide trend…
The Standard Class Discus A first flew in 1984 using the fuselage and tail unit of the original Ventus with a new unflapped wing. The wing planform is noteworthy as being the first production sailplane to have the now common distictive shape where the leading edge sweepback increases towards the tip, establishing a worldwide trend…
The Cirrus 75 was a follow-on to the original Standard Cirrus 15 m design. The Cirrus 75 added larger top-surface airbrakes, redesigned wing fairings, and a longer nose. These changes resulted in a slightly improved L/D (37 vs 36) and minimum sink rate (124 ft/s vs. 128 ft/s). A B model was produced that had…
The Ventus 2, despite its names, is substantially changed from its similarly named predecessor. It has a complely new Discus planform wing and comes in a number of different configurations. The unpowered sailplane comes in three different varieties, the short fuselage 15 m. Ventus 2a, the larger fuselage 15 m. –2b, and the convertible tip…
The Nimbus 4D is the successor to the earlier 24.6 m. Nimbus 3D. The six piece Discus planform wing has full span camber changing flaperons. Approach control is by double segment top surface Schempp-Hirth airbrakes which are interconnected with the inboard sections of the flaps. There is an optional fin ballast tank for trimming purposes.…