Ernő Rubik began the design of the R-03 Szittya to meet a Hungarian club call for a motor glider, intending to strut-mount the engine in pusher configuration over the central fuselage.

Financial problems prevented purchase of the engine and the aircraft was completed as a conventional glider, named the Szittya I.

[1][2] The Szittya I's gull wing was mounted on a fuselage pedestal and was built around a single spar which, with plywood covering ahead of it around the leading edge, formed a torsion-resistant D-box.

[2] The semi-monocoque fuselage of the Szittya was an oval section, ply structure built around frames and stringers.

Aft, the fuselage depth reduced a little to the tail, where the ply-covered fin carried a fabric-covered, curved rudder.

The wing was no longer pedestal-mounted but placed directly upon a remodelled, raised fuselage which tapered gradually aft.