AP 118 · No. 10 Section II · Aircraft Plate 234 / 237

Plate 234 of 237 · Modern age · Two-seat composite kit plane

Europa

Europa (monowheel), painted as G-YURO, the Yorkshire Air Museum’s Europa prototype (c/n PFA 220-11981), the first of Ivan Shaw’s Europa kit planes, first flown on 12 September 1992 and now displayed at Elvington: a two-seat side-by-side low-wing monoplane built of glassfibre and foam composite, with a retractable single main wheel under the fuselage, a steerable tail wheel, sprung outrigger legs under the wings and a Rotax 912 flat-four driving a three-blade composite propeller, shown parked on the ground with the outriggers lowered and in the publicity colours it wears in the museum: gel-coat white overall with a navy “G-YURO” and the web address “www.europa-aircraft.com” on the rear fuselage, a scatter of red, teal and navy stars with navy comet lines behind the cabin, “Europa XS” in navy script on the cowling, the Millennium Products ring and a star field on the fin, and “G-YURO”, the web address and Millennium Products rings on the undersides of the wings and tailplane (the upper surfaces of the wings and tailplane, which photographs of the suspended aircraft do not show, are left plain white).

3D model

Turn it over

A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as G-YURO, the Yorkshire Air Museum’s Europa prototype (c/n PFA 220-11981), the first of Ivan Shaw’s Europa kit planes, first flown on 12 September 1992 and now displayed at Elvington: a two-seat side-by-side low-wing monoplane built of glassfibre and foam composite, with a retractable single main wheel under the fuselage, a steerable tail wheel, sprung outrigger legs under the wings and a Rotax 912 flat-four driving a three-blade composite propeller, shown parked on the ground with the outriggers lowered and in the publicity colours it wears in the museum: gel-coat white overall with a navy “G-YURO” and the web address “www.europa-aircraft.com” on the rear fuselage, a scatter of red, teal and navy stars with navy comet lines behind the cabin, “Europa XS” in navy script on the cowling, the Millennium Products ring and a star field on the fin, and “G-YURO”, the web address and Millennium Products rings on the undersides of the wings and tailplane (the upper surfaces of the wings and tailplane, which photographs of the suspended aircraft do not show, are left plain white). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (952 KB)

Data plate

Specification

First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (); engine, crew and dimensions are for the Europa (monowheel) modelled here.

History

The Europa

Ivan Shaw was a Barnsley schoolteacher turned professional pilot who had already built his own aeroplane in his garage: a Rutan VariEze, G-IVAN, which he converted over the winter of 1986–87 into a twin with two small rotary engines. In January 1990 he began designing a two-seat touring aircraft that an amateur could build from a kit and keep at home. It was to be fast and economical, and its wings were to come off so that it could be towed on a trailer and stored in a garage, saving the hangar rent that made private flying so expensive in Britain. The company he had founded in 1987, Europa Aircraft, set up at Kirkbymoorside in North Yorkshire and won a £100,000 grant from the Department of Trade and Industry.

The Europa was built of glassfibre and resin over foam, with a laminar-flow low wing, two seats side by side under a large canopy and a Rotax 912 flat-four in the nose. To save weight and drag Shaw gave it a single retractable main wheel under the fuselage and a steerable tail wheel, like a glider, with sprung outrigger legs under the wings that came down with the flaps. The prototype, G-YURO, first flew on 12 September 1992, and the Popular Flying Association approved the design in May 1993. A set of long carbon-fibre wings turned it into a motor glider. The monowheel was fast but tricky for inexperienced pilots on the ground, and the improved Europa XS of 1997, with hollow preformed wings, a cleaner cowling and a larger baggage bay, was also offered with a tricycle undercarriage, which became the more popular choice.

In 1999 the Europa was named a Millennium Product, one of the Design Council’s showcase of British design for the new millennium. Shaw later left for the United States to develop the Liberty XL2, and the company went through hard years before Swift Technology Group bought it in 2008 and moved it to Scottow, on the former RAF Coltishall. By 2011 about 500 Europas had been completed, more than any other British kit plane, and they fly in dozens of countries. The gazetteer’s museums hold the rest of the kit-plane age too: microlights, trikes and hang gliders at Newark, Bungay, Doncaster and elsewhere.

This airframe

Europa prototype G-YURO

G-YUROThe airframe modelled

G-YURO (constructor’s number PFA 220-11981), Europa number 001, was registered to Europa Aircraft on 6 April 1992 and first flew on 12 September that year. It was the company’s development and demonstration aircraft for its first years, flying with the original monowheel undercarriage and an 80 hp Rotax 912, and was withdrawn in about 1995; its registration was cancelled in 1998. It now hangs from the roof of a hall at the Yorkshire Air Museum at Elvington, a few miles from where the Europa was built, still in the publicity colours of the Europa XS era: white with navy titles, the company’s web address, a scatter of stars and the Millennium Products emblem on the fin. The model shows it parked on its wheel with the outriggers down, as Europas stand on the ground; the upper surfaces of its wings and tailplane, which cannot be seen from the museum floor, are left plain white.

See it at Yorkshire Air Museum

Where to see one

In the gazetteer

The gazetteer records the Europa in 13 UK collections. The airframe modelled here is marked.

Every airframe and serial All 237 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.