The Standard Cirrus was designed by Dipl. Ing. Klaus Holighaus and flew for the first time in March 1969. It is a Standard Class glider with a 15-metre span and no camber-changing flaps. The all-moving tailplane, a feature of many designs of that period due to its theoretically higher efficiency, caused less than desirable high-speed stability characteristics, and so modifications were made to the early design. Even so, the glider is still very sensitive in pitch. The aircraft built before 1972 have a washout of -0.75 degrees. The washout was then increased to -1.5 degrees which improved low-speed performance and response at slow speed. Improvements were made with the Standard Cirrus 75. These included better air-brakes with an increased frontal area. By April 1977, when production by Schempp-Hirth ended, a total of 700 Standard Cirruses had been built, including 200 built under licence by Grob between 1972 and July 1975. A French firm, Lanaverre Industrie, had also built 38 Standard Cirruses under licence by 1979. VTC of Yugoslavia also licence-built Standard Cirruses, reaching approximately 100 by 1985. All models of Cirrus have proved very popular in recent years in Club Class Competitions worldwide. The Cirrus was superseded by the Discus in 1984.
