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The Europa is a two-seat composite monoplane, typically cruising in the range of 120 to 140kts. It has a range and carrying capacity that make it ideally suited to touring, and has acquired the reputation of being an extremely enjoyable aircraft to fly. Compared to the standard certified training types in use around the world, it is faster, quicker in the climb, and far more economical to run. It is designed to be quickly de-rigged and stored on its trailer in a garage - feature that many builders take full advantage of.
The Europa is only available as a kit from the factory, although there are often excellent finished examples on the second-hand market, where they command good resale values.
The Europa is currently available with two different undercarriage configurations (monowheel and tri-gear), and with two different wings (standard and motorglider).
The original Europa - now usually referred to as the Europa Classic - had wet lay-up wings fabricated by the builder using cloth and resin over foam cores. It also had a monowheel undercarriage configuration, with the tailwheel under the fuselage rather than trailing aft of the rudder (a later mod extended it to a similar wheelbase to the current model).
The tri-gear undercarriage was then developed for those pilots who preferred this configuration.
The current version of the kit is the Europa XS, and is available with either monowheel or tri-gear undercarriages. a photo of the three current types is at the top of this page
Finally the motorglider wings have been developed for those who wish to fly with their engines off. They can be used as an alternative to the standard wings, or builders may even build both and use them interchangeably - the fuselage and empennage (tail) are the same for both wings.
