Fritz Raab, who had designed gliders before World War II, recognised a postwar need for a low cost trainer aircraft.

The ply covering extends to the trailing edge at the wing roots over the triangular area defined by the internal drag strut.

The outer panels continue the leading edge ply-covered D-box but incorporate curved ailerons, giving the wing an approximately elliptical planform.

Lift and landing forces are borne by faired struts from the lower fuselage to the main spar close to the end of the wing centre sections.

In the prototype, the student's position was conventional and provided with a windscreen of single curvature and with open sides; the instructor squeezed into a small space behind the student and sat astride a pillion seat in a kneeling position, his weight partly supported by knee pads on either side of the forward seat.

He could reach over the pupil to the top of an extended control column and his feet pointed backwards to rest on a duplicate rudder bar.

Later production machines retain this layout but have a completely enclosed canopy and a slightly raised, bench type instructor's seat.

[3] In 2010 twenty-two Doppelraabs remained on the civil aircraft registers of European countries, one in Belgium, one in the Netherlands, one in Spain and the rest in Germany.