Thanks for the great info John,
Hmmmm.. This has me worried.
If Europa is only planning on producing the Europa till the 1000-mark, How
close are they to that now, and how long will that take?
I hope that they will continue to produce the monowheel variant for the
North American market, regardless of the European regulations...
Thanks,
Pete
-----Original Message-----
Subject: A few words from Europa
At the AGM of the Europa Club at Cranfield on June 24th, Keith Wilson, the
managing director of Europa Aircraft Company Ltd was asked to say a few
words to
the meeting. It was not a prepared speech, the invitation came at short
notice.
The following is a summary of Keith's remarks, for the interest of Club
members..
With the announcement of the Liberty XL-2 (the factory-built Europa cousin)
questions have been raised over the future of the kit aircraft company.
Europa
Aircraft is not affected by the announcement and will continue in business
in
the future. They have a target and intention of selling many more Europa
kits,
to take total sales to at least a thousand.
The design of the Europa XS is essentially now mature, no further major
developments are planned, though changes may be incorporated in the light of
service experience and of customer requests. The glider wings in production
form (carbon fibre spar) are being tested prior to the start of manufacture.
A popular suggestion for a future version of the Europa is an 'ultralight'
variant (this means to the European SLA code, not a US Part 103 machine!).
This
would mean a weight reduction and an engineering study into this possibility
has
already been carried out. However a business case would also have to be
made
for such a development, it being notoriously expensive to design weight out
of
an existing design to a significant degree.
Another suggestion is a 4 seat variant. [Sounds like a whole new design.]
In Europa a 'National PPL' class of licence seems to be threatening to
emerge.
The company has been in discussion with the CAA (regulatory body) about the
status of the Europa in the context of such a licence. Europa (monowheel)
is
presently viewed as a 'complex' aircraft because of its retractable
undercarriage (and because of the VP propeller, if fitted). The company are
seeking a waiver on these items, though if this is not obtained it may
review
the situation.
The company is becoming concerned at the number of aftermarket (i.e.
non-factory) conventional taildragger conversions which are appearing,
feeling
that their ability to support the design and their builders will be
impaired.
They intend to carry out a review of the alternatives and see if any meet
their
'requirements'. If they find one it might be 'approved' or recommended in
some
way or the company might decide to take a more active role.
In response to a question from the floor about VP propellers, Keith said
that
the company is again evaluating the available VP props, and he mentioned
three
which seemed promising.
1. Kremen. Used by Tom Justic on his Europa. We site is
www.kremen.cz
2. Airmaster. Availability is currently a problem. Web sites - see
Tony Krzyzewski's site and www.propellor.com
3. Whirlwind. Used by Kim Prout on his Europa. Web site is
www.whirlwindpropellers.com
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