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Design Insights

Design Insight: the A-Team

The EN-A class has developed – a lot. Uncovering the latest generation of EN-A+ gliders

19 January, 2026, by Bastienne Wentzel

“I’m telling you, you don’t need anything more than an EN-A wing for your entire flying career!” With a whopping eight EN-A gliders in their range, Phi designer Hannes Papesh is clearly a fan of EN-A wings.

Traditionally, the EN-B class has always had the biggest slice of the market. But this is slowly changing, confirms designer Philipp Medicus from Nova: “EN-A has grown to be similar to EN-B.”

The A-class used to be the domain of school gliders. Flying bricks, boring, slow and sluggish to handle. But this is...

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