AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 185 / 198

Plate 185 of 198 · Cold War · Home-built two-seat light aircraft

Evans VP-2

Evans VP-2, painted as G-BTAZ, the City of Norwich Aviation Museum’s Evans VP-2, a two-seat side-by-side wooden homebuilt from W. S. “Bud” Evans’s plans, built in Britain under the Popular Flying Association’s number PFA 063-11474 and dating from 1990, and displayed at Horsham St Faith since at least 2006: the two-seat development of the Volksplane, a slab-sided plywood box with a strut-braced, fabric-covered low wing, an all-moving fin and stabilator and an air-cooled Volkswagen flat-four with its cylinder heads standing out of the cowling sides, painted as photographed: white overall with a red nose and decking, a red hump behind the perspex canopy, red leading edges wrapping back over the front of the wings and stabilator, a red front third on the fin, red stabilator tip pods, white wing-tip pods and a red “G-BTAZ” on both sides of the fuselage; it is the Evans VP-2, held by three of the gazetteer’s museums, that stands for the homebuilt shelf.

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-BTAZ, the City of Norwich Aviation Museum’s Evans VP-2, a two-seat side-by-side wooden homebuilt from W. S. “Bud” Evans’s plans, built in Britain under the Popular Flying Association’s number PFA 063-11474 and dating from 1990, and displayed at Horsham St Faith since at least 2006: the two-seat development of the Volksplane, a slab-sided plywood box with a strut-braced, fabric-covered low wing, an all-moving fin and stabilator and an air-cooled Volkswagen flat-four with its cylinder heads standing out of the cowling sides, painted as photographed: white overall with a red nose and decking, a red hump behind the perspex canopy, red leading edges wrapping back over the front of the wings and stabilator, a red front third on the fin, red stabilator tip pods, white wing-tip pods and a red “G-BTAZ” on both sides of the fuselage; it is the Evans VP-2, held by three of the gazetteer’s museums, that stands for the homebuilt shelf. Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (499 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (+ Leopard, Europa et al.); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Evans VP-2 modelled here.

History

The VP-2

William Samuel “Bud” Evans was an aeronautical engineer who had worked for Convair, Ryan and General Dynamics in southern California. In 1966, at home in La Jolla, he began designing an aeroplane for people who had never built one, and he put ease of building and safe handling ahead of performance and looks. The result was the single-seat VP-1 Volksplane, which first flew in September 1968. It was made almost entirely of wood: a slab-sided fuselage of marine plywood whose skin carried the loads, so the frame needed no diagonal braces, and a strut-braced, fabric-covered low wing built round two plank spars with identical ribs. The wings came off for towing home by road, and the engine was a converted Volkswagen Beetle flat-four.

Builders soon asked for a second seat. The VP-2, first flown in 1971, looked much like the VP-1 but was a foot wider, to take two people side by side in an enlarged cockpit, a foot longer and three feet greater in span. It was stressed to the normal-category limits of 3.8g positive and 1.9g negative, and could take any air-cooled Volkswagen engine from 1,834 to 2,100 cc. With a 60 hp engine it cruised at about 75 mph and could reach 100 mph. Like the VP-1 it had no flaps, and its fin and tailplane both moved as one piece. Evans sold plans rather than kits, and over 6,000 sets of VP-1 plans were sold, but the company later stopped selling the VP-2 and answering questions about it, worried about the legal risk of a two-seater.

In Britain both Volksplanes were built under the supervision of the Popular Flying Association, which gave the VP-2 its own type number, 063, and several flew from farm strips and small aerodromes in the 1980s and 1990s. They belong to a long line of garage-built aeroplanes that runs from the Luton Minor of the 1930s through the Turbulent and the Clutton FRED to Michel Colomban’s tiny twin-engined Cri-Cri. The gazetteer records Evans types at three museums, more than any other type on this homebuilt shelf: VP-2s at Norwich, St Athan and the Ulster Aviation Society, and a VP-1 alongside the St Athan VP-2.

This airframe

VP-2 G-BTAZ

G-BTAZThe airframe modelled

G-BTAZ was built in Britain from Evans’s plans under the Popular Flying Association’s project number PFA 063-11474 and dates from 1990. It has been on display at the City of Norwich Aviation Museum at Horsham St Faith, on the edge of Norwich Airport, since at least 2006, at first outside among the larger exhibits and more recently under cover in the museum’s display marquee, where it is one of the smallest aircraft in the collection. The model shows it as photographed there: white overall with a red nose and decking, a red hump behind the perspex canopy, red leading edges wrapping back over the front of the wings and stabilator, a red front third on the fin, red stabilator tip pods and white wing-tip pods, a red “G-BTAZ” on both sides of the fuselage, a light grey two-blade propeller and the Volkswagen engine’s cylinder heads standing out of the cowling sides. Its height is taken from photographs of this airframe: the 5 ft 1.5 in often quoted belongs to the smaller single-seat VP-1.

See it at City of Norwich Aviation Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the VP-2 in 13 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 198 plates

Profiles and models are procedural interpretations built in Blender from published dimensions, three-view drawings and photographs of each airframe. Treat the museum aircraft as the reference.