The Standard Austria was a single-seat aerobatic glider that was originally designed and built in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

from 1959 but production was moved in 1962 to

Schempp-Hirth Schempp-Hirth Flugzeugbau GmbH is a glider manufacturer based in Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany. History Martin Schempp founded his own company in Göppingen in 1935, with the assistance of Wolf Hirth. The company was initially called "Sportfl ...

in Germany.

Development

Commissioned by the ''Österreichischer Aeroclub'' – (Austrian Aero club) the Standard Austria was designed by Rüdiger Kunz to compete in the 1960 OSTIV competition for a standard class sailplane, winning plaudits as the best standard class aircraft. The design aims were to produce an aircraft with a low wing loading and a high

lift/drag ratio In aerodynamics, the lift-to-drag ratio (or L/D ratio) is the lift generated by an aerodynamic body such as an aerofoil or aircraft, divided by the aerodynamic drag caused by moving through air. It describes the aerodynamic efficiency under give ...

, which necessitated low weight and low drag. To achieve the design aims the Standard Austria was constructed primarily of wood with

plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...

skinning and a

glass-fibre 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 clot ...

nose section, pilots seat and tail-cone. Other weight and drag saving measures included use of an all-moving 'V' or 'Butterfly' tail unit with two surfaces, set in a 'V' configuration, providing stability and control in both pitch and yaw, in exchange for increased cost and complexity of the control systems and minor handling side effects, like slight pitching of the aircraft with application of rudder and vice versa. After the initial production run in Austria, production was moved to

in Germany, where the Standard Austria's development continued with improved and heavier models, optional retractable undercarriage, replacement of the NACA section wings with wings using an Eppler 266 section, to improve low-speed performance. Ben and 22 Sugar in the weeds

Two were used in the 1967 NFB film 'Flight' (CF-RNH, CF-RS

Variants

;Standard Austria :Initial production model built in Austria. ;Standard Austria S :Production aircraft built by Schemp-Hirth under license in Germany. ;Standard Austria SH :Improved heavier model, 5 built. ;Standard Austria SH-I :The SH with retractable undercarriage ;Standard Austria :From 1964 produced using an Eppler 266 aerofoil section. The

Schempp-Hirth SHK The Schempp-Hirth SHK Open Class glider was developed in Germany by Schempp-Hirth. It was based on the 1964 version of the Standard Austria, known as the SH. The Austria was originally a single-seat aerobatic glider that had been designed an ...

, a 17-meter Open Class glider, was also developed by

Klaus Holighaus __NOTOC__ Klaus Holighaus (14 July 1940 – 9 August 1994) was a glider designer, glider pilot and entrepreneur.Martin Schempp Introduction Martin Schempp (23 March 1905 - 9 July 1984) was a glider pilot and founder of Schempp-Hirth, a major manufacturer of gliders. First years Martin Schempp was born in Stuttgart. After completing his commercial education, he helped ...

*https://web.archive.org/web/20070608193349/http://www.sailplanedirectory.com/PlaneDetails.cfm?planeID=338
British Gliding Association - Standard Austria data sheet
{{Schempp-Hirth Schempp-Hirth aircraft 1950s Austrian sailplanes V-tail aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1959