aerospace founded 1987 headquarters kirkbymoorside north yorkshire uk products kitplanes parent swift technology group 1 website www.europa aircraft.co.uk europa classic europa xs europa aircraft is a british kitplane manufacturer that produces the europa xs . the company was established to produce a small kit built low wing aircraft for personal use within europe with these design goals high speed low cost able to be built and stored at home easily transportable using mogas fuel able to be rigged for flight in under five minutes carrying two people in comfort providing sufficient baggage for extended touring . apart from low cost these design parameters were largely met . 2 history edit europa aircraft has existed under several company names the current name is europa aircraft 2004 ltd. the manufacturing of the europa range of aircraft is carried out by a sister company aviation and marine engineering ltd. both companies are located in the same premises . 3 the original europa the classic was designed by ivan shaw and the prototype first flew in february 1992 . production was established at the company s factory in kirkbymoorside north yorkshire . 2 4 ivan shaw left europa to develop the europa derivative liberty xl2 production aircraft at a new company liberty aerospace in melbourne florida united states . after he left the firm faced considerable difficulties ; but in september 2008 company fortunes improved as europa aircraft was acquired by british company swift technology group . other companies within the group include swift aircraft swift tg solutions and aviation and marine engineering ltd. 5 6 7 in the early 1990s the company was grant by the uk department of trade and industry in recognition of its technical achievements . clarification needed europa aircraft has grown to be one of the most successful british kit plane suppliers with over 700 europas flying in 33 countries . the europa xs was named as one of the uk s millennium products by the then prime minister tony blair and described by pilot magazine as the most significant light plane of the decade . 2 4 8 references edit sport aviation 17 . january 2009 . missing or empty title help a b c europa aircraft 2011 . about . retrieved 3 august 2011 . europa aircraft n.d. . europa aircraft 2004 ltd . retrieved 10 september 2008 . a b yorkshire air museum n.d. . europa prototype . retrieved 3 august 2011 . pilot friend n.d. . liberty xl 2 aircraft history performance and specifications . retrieved 3 august 2011 . swift aircraft n.d. . swift aircraft . retrieved 28 october 2008 . swift tg solutions n.d. . swift tg solutions . retrieved 28 october 2008 . jones geoffrey november 1993 . aircraft made from a kit offers freedom of the skies on a tank of petrol . the independent . uk . retrieved 3 august 2011 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to europa aircraft . europa aircraft aviation marine and engineering ltd retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title europa aircraft & oldid 722488868 categories aircraft manufacturers of the united kingdomcompanies based in north yorkshirecompanies established in 1987hidden categories pages with citations lacking titlesuse british english from august 2011use dmy dates from august 2011wikipedia articles needing clarification from may 2016commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version in other projects wikimedia commons languages add links this page was last modified on 28 may 2016 at 13 23 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view