ARV Super2
Encyclopedia
The ARV Super2 is a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
two-seat, strut-braced, shoulder wing
Shoulder wing
A shoulder wing is a monoplane aircraft wing configuration in which the wing is mounted near the top of the fuselage, but not on the top....
, light aircraft
Light aircraft
A light aircraft is an aircraft that has a maximum gross take-off weight of or less.Many aircraft used commercially for freight, sightseeing, photography and scheduled flights are light aircraft.Examples of light aircraft include:...
, designed by Bruce Giddings as an affordable trainer
Trainer (aircraft)
A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate in-flight training of pilots and aircrews. The use of a dedicated trainer aircraft with additional safety features—such as tandem flight controls, forgiving flight characteristics and a simplified cockpit arrangement—allows...
. Around 35 aircraft were produced in the 1980s before the manufacturing companies went into liquidation.
Opus Aircraft of North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
acquired manufacturing rights plus a selection of aircraft parts. They have produced an "Opus Super 2" prototype, but their proposed resumption of production has yet to begin.
Design and development
After breaking the world land speed recordLand speed record
The land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a wheeled vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C flying start regulations are used, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the Fédération...
in 1983, the UK entrepreneur Richard Noble
Richard Noble
Richard Noble, OBE was the holder of the land speed record between 1983 and 1997, and was the project director of ThrustSSC, the vehicle which holds the current land speed record, set at Black Rock Desert, Nevada in 1997....
, spotted a gap in the market for a low-cost light two-seat trainer, after expensive product-liability lawsuits in the United States had temporarily driven the major American [GA] manufacturers to abandon production of such aircraft. Noble set up a factory at Sandown
Sandown
Sandown is a seaside resort town and civil parish on the southeast coast of the Isle of Wight, England, neighbouring the town of Shanklin to the south. Sandown Bay is the name of the bay off the English Channel which both towns share, and it is notable for its long stretch of easily accessible...
on the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
to build the aircraft, named the ARV Super2, the first prototype flying on 11 March 1985. The factory used some novel manufacturing techniques, including British ALCAN's "Supral" (a superplastic
Superplasticity
In materials science, superplasticity is a state in which solid crystalline material is deformed well beyond its usual breaking point, usually over about 200% during tensile deformation. Such a state is usually achieved at high homologous temperature, typically half the absolute melting point. ...
aluminium alloy), adhesives (to reduce rivet count and save weight), and a bespoke
Bespoke
Bespoke is a term employed in a variety of applications to mean an item custom-made to the buyer's specification...
new British engine, the Hewland AE75
Hewland AE75
The Hewland AE75 is a lightweight two stroke, inverted, inline triple, liquid-cooled aircraft engine of displacement, that was manufactured in the mid-1980s by Hewland in Maidenhead, United Kingdom.-Design and development:...
. These innovations gave the ARV an empty weight 40% lower than the Cessna 152
Cessna 152
The Cessna 152 is an American two-seat, fixed tricycle gear, general aviation airplane, used primarily for flight training and personal use.-Development:...
, making the Super2 cheap to buy and economical to operate. The manufacturer claimed it would reduce pilot training costs by 25%
The ARV Super2 is a side-by-side configuration two-seater with a shoulder wing
Wing
A wing is an appendage with a surface that produces lift for flight or propulsion through the atmosphere, or through another gaseous or liquid fluid...
for good visibility. The wing is swept forward 5° to maintain correct center of gravity
Center of gravity
In physics, a center of gravity of a material body is a point that may be used for a summary description of gravitational interactions. In a uniform gravitational field, the center of mass serves as the center of gravity...
balance. The wing area is a small 92 sq ft (8.5 m²), giving a wing loading of 11.9 lb/ft² (58.1 kg/m²). The ARV is constructed of mainly aluminium
Aluminium
Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
alloy, with fibreglass wingtips and cowlings. The cockpit is a stiff monocoque
Monocoque
Monocoque is a construction technique that supports structural load by using an object's external skin, as opposed to using an internal frame or truss that is then covered with a non-load-bearing skin or coachwork...
of "Supral" alloy for lightness and improved crash protection. Aft of the cockpit bulkhead, the ARV is conventionally built, with frames, longerons and stressed skin
Stressed skin
In mechanical engineering, stressed skin is a type of rigid construction, intermediate between monocoque and a rigid frame with a non-loaded covering:...
. Skin sections are both glued and riveted. The aircraft has twin control sticks, and all controls are pushrod, except the rudder, which is cable-linked. Both flaps and trim are mechanically operated. The rudder pedals control a steerable nosewheel, but the disc brake
Disc brake
The disc brake or disk brake is a device for slowing or stopping the rotation of a wheel while it is in motion.A brake disc is usually made of cast iron, but may in some cases be made of composites such as reinforced carbon–carbon or ceramic matrix composites. This is connected to the wheel and/or...
s are hand-operated.
The AE75 engine, a 49 kg (108 lb)75 hp inverted three-cylinder water-cooled two-stroke unit with dual ignition
Dual ignition
Dual Ignition is a system for spark-ignition engines, whereby each cylinder has every critical ignition component duplicated, including spark plugs, magnetos and ignition circuits, rather than the more usual single spark plug or circuit...
and a 2.7:1 reduction gearbox, was specially developed for the ARV by Hewland
Hewland
Founded by Mike Hewland in 1957, Hewland is a British engineering company specialising in racing-car gearboxes. Hewland was the first company to manufacture a bespoke racing-car gearbox....
from their existing two-cylinder microlight engine. Many ARVs have had their AE75s replaced with engines such as the Rotax 912, 912S, 914
Rotax 914
-References:*...
, fuel-injected MidWest
MidWest AE series
| -See also:-External links:*...
twin-rotor wankel engine, and the Jabiru 2200
Jabiru 2200
| -See also:-External links:* *...
.
Opus Aircraft has changed some specifications for the aircraft, increasing the Vne to 134 kn (263 km/h) and increasing the gross weight to 1168 lb (530 kg). The company intends to equip the aircraft with the Rotax 912UL or 912A of 80 hp.
The Super2 gained airworthiness certification
Type certificate
A Type Certificate, is awarded by aviation regulating bodies to aerospace manufacturers after it has been established that the particular design of a civil aircraft, engine, or propeller has fulfilled the regulating bodies' current prevailing airworthiness requirements for the safe conduct of...
in July 1986, and entered full production. In November 1985, Noble had reached an agreement to supply ARV parts to Canada's Instar Aviation, where the aircraft would be assembled for the North American market. Transport Canada
Transport Canada
Transport Canada is the department within the government of Canada which is responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of transportation in Canada. It is part of the Transportation, Infrastructure and Communities portfolio...
had agreed to certify the aircraft based on it "meeting UK criteria", but this in the end the Canadian production plans came to nothing. Soon after, there were a number of forced landings due to gearbox failures induced by propeller vibration; and in November 1987 the CAA grounded the aircraft. Although these problems were quickly resolved, the damage was done. Buyers and investors lost confidence, and this led to the closure of the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is a county and the largest island of England, located in the English Channel, on average about 2–4 miles off the south coast of the county of Hampshire, separated from the mainland by a strait called the Solent...
factory. The company was forced into Administration
Administration (insolvency)
As a legal concept, administration is a procedure under the insolvency laws of a number of common law jurisdictions. It functions as a rescue mechanism for insolvent entities and allows them to carry on running their business. The process – an alternative to liquidation – is often known as going...
, with the company being rescued after a management buyout
Management buyout
A management buyout is a form of acquisition where a company's existing managers acquire a large part or all of the company.- Overview :Management buyouts are similar in all major legal aspects to any other acquisition of a company...
, being renamed Island Aircraft. Between 30 and 35 aircraft were completed by ARV and Island aircraft at Sandown, with production first being transferred to Scotland and then to Sweden, where it was renamed the "Opus 280", before the Swedish producers themselves went bankrupt in 1995. After yet another unsuccessful attempt to restart production in Ohio, a new consortium, Opus Aircraft, acquired the rights, establishing a factory in North Carolina. In February 2008, the "Opus Super 2" was granted FAA Light Sport Aircraft approval.
Originally, ARVs were available either as kit-built aircraft (subject to PFA
Popular Flying Association
The Light Aircraft Association is the representative body in the United Kingdom for amateur aircraft construction, recreational and sport flying...
Permit), or factory built (and subject to the CAA Certificate of Airworthiness
Type certificate
A Type Certificate, is awarded by aviation regulating bodies to aerospace manufacturers after it has been established that the particular design of a civil aircraft, engine, or propeller has fulfilled the regulating bodies' current prevailing airworthiness requirements for the safe conduct of...
). In 2004, the CAA reclassified all ARVs as PFA (now LAA) Permit aircraft. The ARV Super2 was originally intended to be aerobatic, but the Isle of Wight factory closed before CAA clearance was obtained, so aerobatics remain prohibited. Also, the factory had planned to develop a four-seater version, wing-tip tanks and floats.
Since the closure of ARV's Isle of Wight factory, any modification proposals have had to be submitted by ARV owners to the Light Aircraft Association for approval. These include replacement engines, radiators and fuel-injection systems, the Arplast Ecoprop 3-blade ground-adjustable propeller
Ground-adjustable propeller
A ground-adjustable propeller is a simple type of variable-pitch aircraft propeller, , whose blades can be rotated around their long axis to change their pitch, but in this instance any adjustment can be performed only on the ground...
s, tundra tyres, Trelleborg tyres, vortex generator
Vortex generator
A vortex generator is an aerodynamic surface, consisting of a small vane or bump that creates a vortex. Vortex generators can be found on many devices, but the term is most often used in aircraft design....
s, engine-driven vacuum pump
Vacuum pump
A vacuum pump is a device that removes gas molecules from a sealed volume in order to leave behind a partial vacuum. The first vacuum pump was invented in 1650 by Otto von Guericke.- Types :Pumps can be broadly categorized according to three techniques:...
s for panel instruments.
Super2s have very limited luggage space, with just a small locker behind the headrests (inaccessible during flight), plus a pair of elasticated map pockets in the cockpit sides. The second prototype, G-STWO, has an extra luggage locker in the starboard fuselage, just behind the fuel tank, but to date no other ARVs have this feature.