On Sunday, March 20, 2016 at 3:12:18 PM UTC-7, wrote:

The fuselage is there to hold the pilot and connect the parts. Beyond those purposes the only thing it adds is drag. As far as lift, it needs to not screw it up- that's it. It is pretty hard to do much better than the Schleicher fuselage without reducing cockpit size.
I'll make a bold prediction that the new "full size" fuselage for the New Ventus will have a much thinner tail boom and tighter waste. We'll see.

I was told somewhere along the line that the forward fuselage of the current generation of Schleicher single-seaters was designed in such a way that it allowed the horizontal stabilizer to be significantly reduced in size - with a corresponding reduction in parasite drag. I was never able to substantiate the claim, but the horizontal stab on my ASW-27 is pretty compact compared to older generation gliders. I suppose it could also have something to do with the tail design and airfoil itself.

Also FWIW.

9B