FFA Diamant

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.
Design and development.
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 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."
Operational history.
Diamant 18s were entered in the 1968 World Gliding Championships, held in Leszno, Poland and placed third and fourth. Ross Briegleb won the 1970 US Nationals at El Mirage, California flying a Diamant 18. He also set the national speed record for the at .
In June 2011 there were still five Diamant HBVs, 20 Diamant 16.5s and five Diamant 18s registered in the United States.