The Diana gliders will always remain one of my favourites. I’m lucky to have a number of Diana gliders already in my fleet: a Diana 1 (1:3.5) that was built by my mate Richi and that I added to my fleet in 2018 (the plane is from 2004 and still looks like new and flies great), my scratch-built Diana 2 (1:3.5)(my first ever scratch built glider), my Chocofly Diana 2 (1:3.5)(with both a FES and a light glider fuselage), as well as my Baudis Diana 2 (1:3). And of course there’s my new Diana 4, work on which is ongoing.

Although I really like my Baudis Diana 2, the plane’s fuselage suffers from serious anorexia. Unfortunately Baudis reduced the fuselage contours from the original. It might be faster, but it just doesn’t look very nice. Luck has it that Richi and Georg produced a Diana 2 in scale 1:3 already over 20 years ago and have kindly allowed me to use their moulds and plans. They equipped their Diana 2 with a somewhat thicker airfoil than the (much) newer Baudis and left the fuselage size to original scale. I’ve seen their Diana 2 in action on many occasions – it’s a beauty with a very impressive performance. While not as fast and dynamic as my Baudis Diana 2, it is definitely a better thermaller.

Building one for myself has long been on my wishlist. My mate Georg kindly agreed to help me build a fuselage from the mould this winter. Although I will have enough work for the next year or so at least, finishing my Diana 4 and the new Elfe S3, I do like having multiple projects running in parallel.

The picture below shows my Baudis Diana 2 (1:3) and Georg’s self-built Diana 2 (1:3) fuselage, equipped with Baudis wings and tailplane (the plane up front with initials GS). Unfortunately the picture doesn’t do as much justice to the nicer fuselage – it looks better in real life.