Our wood supplier in Germany, Thoma Balsaholz GbR, ensures first-class wood for the production of the milled parts. 45 years of experience in the sale of wood to end customers ensure selected and consistently good quality. Thoma Balsaholz GbR obtains its material from Italy from the company Panguaneta Plywood.

Why to use poplar plywood
Gliders have to be very stable and light at the same time. The wings in particular are heavily loaded during the flight. Since the 1960s, therefore, more and more modern synthetic fibers are used such as GRP, coal or for example carbon. The concept of CNC-Bauteile.eu is, however, to recreate only the old wooden gliders.
It is all the more important to pay attention to stability, low weight and easy processing. Poplar plywood is the ideal material for this. While balsa was previously used as solid wood for almost everything, nowadays these parts can be almost completely replaced by poplar plywood with an almost comparable weight. The use of CNC technology makes it possible to mill cut-outs precisely and statically correct in every piece of wood.
Therefore our milled parts for the old glider models consist with an average of 80% of poplar plywood.

Flight characteristics and flight duration
Good flight characteristics cannot be directly derived from the use of poplar plywood. Good flight characteristics result from a low and balanced weight of the model - and the use of poplar plywood contributes significantly to this!
The Rhönlerche flies very leisurely and is easy to control. Their flight characteristics are even significantly better than the original. On the second flight, the pilot was able to sail in the air for more than 50 minutes - there is no engine!
The weight of the ready built 6-meter model was around 17 kg, which is very light for this size of a model with a huge fuselage and deep wings - thanks to Panguaneta plywood!

Thoma Balsa GbR: https://thomabalsa.com/

CNC-Bauteile.eu:  https://www.cnc-bauteile.eu/