FFA Diamant
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The FFA Diamant (English: ''Diamond'') is a family of
Swiss Swiss most commonly refers to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Swiss may also refer to: Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina * Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses * Swiss Café, an old café located ...
high-wing A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing config ...
,
T-tail A T-tail is an empennage wikt:configuration, configuration in which the tailplane of an aircraft is mounted to the top of the vertical stabilizer, fin. The arrangement looks like the capital letter T, hence the name. The T-tail differs fr ...
ed, single-seat,
FAI Standard Class Competition classes in gliding, as in other sports, mainly exist to ensure fairness in competition. However the classes have not been targeted at fostering technological development as in other sports. Instead classes have arisen because of: * t ...
and
FAI Open Class Competition classes in gliding, as in other sports, mainly exist to ensure fairness in competition. However the classes have not been targeted at fostering technological development as in other sports. Instead classes have arisen because of: * t ...
gliders that was designed by engineering students under supervision of Professor Rauscher at the
ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...
and manufactured by
Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein AG (FFA) () was a Swiss aircraft and railroad car manufacturing company based at Altenrhein (SG). It was originally part of Dornier Flugzeugwerke, but was split off in 1948. History In the years following World ...
AG (FFA) of
Altenrhein Thal is a village and municipality in the ''Wahlkreis'' (constituency) of Rorschach in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. Besides the village of Thal itself, the municipality also includes the villages of Altenrhein, Buechen, Buriet and ...
,
Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...
.Rogers, Bennett: ''1974 Sailplane Directory, Soaring Magazine'', page 58. Soaring Society of America, August 1974. USPS 499-920 The Diamant is noted as the first glider that was built entirely from
glassfibre Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...
, with no other materials, such as
balsa ''Ochroma pyramidale'', commonly known as balsa, is a large, fast-growing tree native to the Americas. It is the sole member of the genus ''Ochroma'', and is classified in the subfamily Bombacoideae of the mallow family Malvaceae. The tree is fa ...
, used as a sandwich.


Design and development

The initial student prototype design used the wings from a
Schleicher Ka 6 The Schleicher Ka 6 is a single-seat Glider aircraft, glider designed by Rudolf Kaiser, built by Alexander Schleicher GmbH & Co, Germany and is constructed of spruce and plywood with fabric covering. The design initially featured a conventional t ...
, but these were replaced on production aircraft with
Glasflügel H-301 The Glasflügel H-301 Libelle is an early composite single-seat sailplane produced by Glasflügel from 1964 to 1969. The H-301 had camber-changing wing flaps so was required to compete in the Open Class because the Standard Class excluded wi ...
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 Dornier Flugzeugwerke was a German aircraft manufacturer founded in Friedrichshafen in 1914 by Claude Dornier. Over the course of its long lifespan, the company produced many designs for both the civil and military markets. History Originall ...
, but was split off as a separate company after the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
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 A type certificate signifies the airworthiness of a particular category of aircraft, according to its manufacturing design (''type design''). Certification confirms that the aircraft of a new type intended for serial production is in compliance w ...
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 The World Gliding Championships (WGC) is a gliding competitions, gliding competition held roughly every two years by the FAI Gliding Commission. The dates are not always exactly two years apart, often because the contests are always held in the sum ...
, held in
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,
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
and placed third and fourth. Ross Briegleb won the 1970 US Nationals at
El Mirage, California El Mirage (corruption of ''El Miraje'', Spanish for "The Mirage") is an unincorporated community in the western Victor Valley of the Mojave Desert, within San Bernardino County, California. El Mirage is next to the El Mirage Lake, a dry lake ...
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.


Variants

;Diamant HBV :With a wingspan the HBV was designed for the Standard Class. It uses the wings from a Glasflügel H-301 Libelle and mates them with a fully reclined cockpit and a new T-tailed
fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...
. The model also has water ballast and a retractable monowheel landing gear. Thirteen were built before it was replaced in production by the 16.5. Certified by the FAA on 7 June 1967. ;Diamant 16.5 :The 16.5 is named for its wingspan, which placed it in the Open Class at the time of its construction. The aircraft was introduced in 1967, and unlike the HBV, the wings of which were built by
Glasflügel The firm Glasflügel () was founded by Eugen Hänle in 1962 and was located in Schlattstall, south of Kirchheim unter Teck. It was the first firm to manufacture a glass-fibre sailplane in large numbers. It was also responsible for a large number ...
, the 16.5 was entirely built by FFA. It was this model that was the first all-fiberglass sailplane. Forty-three were built. Certified by the FAA on 1 July 1969. ;Diamant 18 :The Diamant 18 is identical to the 16.5, but with a wingspan. The
airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is a streamlined body that is capable of generating significantly more Lift (force), lift than Drag (physics), drag. Wings, sails and propeller blades are examples of airfoils. Foil (fl ...
is a modified Wortmann section designated as the FX 62-K-153m. The wing was extended inboard, with new flap sections added and new
wing tip A wing tip (or wingtip) is the part of the wing that is most distant from the fuselage of a fixed-wing aircraft. Because the wing tip shape influences the size and drag of the wingtip vortices, tip design has produced a diversity of sha ...
fairings. First flown in 1968, about 30 were built. ;Pierson Diamant 19 :Dan Pierson of
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
purchased a Diamant 18 and modified it through a drag-reduction and performance enhancement program, including fairing, reshaping the wingroots and T-tail junction, plus giving it a pointed nose and of water ballast. The landing gear was strengthened for higher gross weights and the wingspan increased to , including
aileron An aileron (French for "little wing" or "fin") is a hinged flight control surface usually forming part of the trailing edge of each wing of a fixed-wing aircraft. Ailerons are used in pairs to control the aircraft in roll (or movement aroun ...
extensions. Control configuration was modified to allow new configurations of flaps and drooped ailerons to improve thermalling performance. The resulting aircraft out-performed the unmodified Diamant 18. In 1983 it was reported that Pierson was planning to use the wings for a two-seat glider and build new wings for the existing fuselage. This aircraft was registered with the US
Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...
as an ''
experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...
''.Said, Bob: ''1983 Sailplane Directory, Soaring Magazine'', page 52. Soaring Society of America, November 1983. USPS 499-920 ; EFF Prometheus 1 :In late 1970s Entwicklungsgemeinschaft für Flugzeugbau (EFF) built an experimental powered sailplane using the airframe of a Diamant 18 fitted with a Microturbo Eclair II turbojet engine, later replaced with a Microturbo TRS 25. The engine is mounted on a pylon above the wing centre section, fuel tanks were located in both wings (40 litre each) and a 1.8 litre tank in the fuselage.


Specifications (Diamant 18)


See also


References


Notes


Bibliography

*


External links


Data, photo and three-view
{{Flug- und Fahrzeugwerke Altenrhein aircraft 1960s Swiss sailplanes
Diamant The Diamant rocket (French for "diamond") was the first exclusively French expendable launch system and at the same time the first satellite launcher not built by either the United States or USSR. As such, it has been referred to as being a key ...
Glider aircraft High-wing aircraft T-tail aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1964