All previous Europa aircraft have been delivered as kits, of which almost 800 have been sold world-wide, with some 300 now flying.

Designated Liberty XL-2, the new two-seat trainer/tourer has just made initial taxi runs, and the first production fuselages have already been built. Initial plans are for 50 to be assembled at Europa's Kirkbymoorside facility and a similar number at its U.S. facility at Lakeland, Florida.

Flyaway price is expected to be about $88,070, equipped with what chief executive Tony Tiarks says will be a "reasonable" avionics fit.

The Liberty XL-2 looks similar to the Europa XS displayed in the static park, but has been totally redesigned for low man-hour volume production. Its cockpit is four-inches wider than that of the kit-built aircraft. A Rotax 912S engine driving a specially-developed Dowty propeller will give it a cruising speed of 130 kt and a range of 600 nmi.

Structurally, the main change is a change from Europa's all-composite airframe in favor of bonded aluminum alloy wings-with an optional folding facility for compact storage-married to a composite fuselage. The switch was made to save weight and shorten manufacturing time (to an estimated 200 man-hours), and for easier certification in the U.S.-where some reservations about "plastic" airframes still persist.

Not at Kirkbymoorside, where Tony Tiarks is happy to point out that more than 75,000 hours have now been logged by the ever-expanding Europa fleet, with the lead aircraft having well over 1,000 hours flying time. The Liberty XL-2's public launch is scheduled for October's National Business Aviation Association convention in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Meanwhile the kit-built Europa XS, available with either a conventional tricycle or a retractable monowheel landing gear, offers another option-standard wings, or extended span surfaces that turn the two-seat tourer into a 27:1 glide ratio motor glider. They are said to be interchangeable on a common fuselage without any further adaptation.

By Bob Rodwell