Although there are many single-seat sailplanes of glassfibre construction few two-seaters initially had been built of this material, the Janus high performance trainer being among the first of them. Design work on this type was begun by Dipl-Ing Klaus Holighaus in 1969, was continued from early 1972 onwards and the prototype first flew in May 1974. Production began with the second aircraft, incorporating several improvements, in January 1975 and 100 examples of all versions of the Janus had been delivered by early 1980 plus three motorised Janus CMs. The Janus B became available to customers in March 1978, this having a fixed-incidence tailplane instead of the all-moving type previously fitted. 

The Janus has set several speed and distance records for two-seaters, including a 100km triangular closed circuit speed of 88.8mph in Switzerland flown by Klaus Holighaus and U. Plarre on 15th August 1974, a women's goal and return flight record of 546 kms. in Italy in April 1976, flown by Adele Orsi and M. Monti, and further speed records over 100km, 300km and 500km triangular closed circuits in South Africa in November 1977.

The Janus has a glassfibre monocoque fuselage with bonded-in foam bulkheads, and this is similar to the Nimbus 2's but the cockpit section is lengthened to accommodate the two pilots in tandem with dual controls under a hinged one-piece canopy. Landing gear consists of a non-retractable monowheel with a drum brake, and a nosewheel; there is also a bumper under the rear fuselage. The two-piece cantilever mid wings have 2° forward sweep on the leading edge, and are of glassfibre/foam sandwich construction, with glassfibre monocoque ailerons, flaps and Schempp-Hirth air brakes in the wing upper surfaces; the camber-changing flaps are operated between +12° and -7°. The tailplane is also of glassfibre/foam sandwich construction. The Janus C has carbon-fibre wings of 20m span and a carbon-fibre tailplane.

Dual controls enable the Janus to be used for training and it is particularly suitable for cross-country instruction as it meets the requirements for a high-performance aircraft, complete with flaps and tail brake parachute.

A French development of the Janus is the SCAP–Lanaverre SL-2 all-plastics sailplane created by SCAP–Société de Commercialisation Aéronautique du Piessis, SàRL and Lanaverre Industries, the latter building the Standard Cirrus under licence from Schempp-Hirth. First flown on 15th October 1977, the SL-2 differs from the Janus chiefly in having provision for 30.8 Imp gallons (140 litres) of water ballast in the wings and a fixed tailplane with elevators instead of a one-piece all-moving tail-plane; a more comfortable cockpit for the two pilots is provided, with provision for back-type parachutes.

The Janus M prototype, D-KIBO, first flew in 1978 and is a motorised version with a 55hp Hirth O-28 engine mounted on a pylon aft of the cockpit end retracting into the fuselage.

PERFORMANCE DATA (Janus A)

 Three Axis View Schempp-Hirth Janus

GGC – VH-FQT

Rodger Druce originally imported this glider into Australia in 1981, flying as a syndicate glider with VMFG until it's sale to Wimmera Soaring Club. At the time of purchase it has flown around 1800 hours, in 1500 flights and remains in excellent condition. Wimmera have put it up for sale to finance the purchase of a Janus CM (the motorised version). The aircraft is to be primarily used for post-solo training, both cross-country and single seat conversion training

Janus FQT is no longer part of GGC fleet. Sold in May 2007.