The Akaflieg Darmstadt D-36 Circe is a single seat, high performance sailplane designed and built in Germany in the mid-1960s, one of the early "glass ships".

Design work on the Circe began in 1962-3 by a team of students, Wolf Lemke (responsible for the wing), Gerhard Waibel (fuselage and tail) and Heiko Friess (airbrakes).

They were difficult to design because of the considerable flexure of the wing, the latter leading to the Circe's nickname of Gummiflügel (English: Rubberwing) at a time of stiffer structures.

Forward of the wing leading edge the cockpit, housing the pilot in semi-reclining position, has a long, two piece canopy which swells above the rear fuselage line.

The whole tail was later redesigned by Holighaus who produced a shorter fin and rudder and got rid of the sweep of the original horizontal surface by adding forward swept elevators.

Rolf Spärig flew it the following year in the 1965 World Championships, held at RAF South Cerney, Gloucestershire, UK, but was beaten into second place in the open class by the Polish Foka 4 flown by Jan Wroblewski, despite the Circe's better glide ratio.

An investigation blamed him rather than the aircraft; the then still-novel glass sailplanes accelerated quickly and speed was easily misjudged when the traditional indicators, such as attitude or sound, were used.