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.
