Ett litet opus om Opus 280
Typen hette från början ARV Super2 och hade då en helt annan motor. Ett 30-tal exemplar av denna tillverkades i mitten av 80-talet på Isle of Wight och jag tror till och med att det fanns en svensk agent (som hette Innovation Aviation?).
Problem med den speciellt för typen framtagna Hewland AE75-motorn fick engelska CAA att utfärda restriktioner, vilket i praktiken stjälpte projektet. Från Aviationweb déjà vu:
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) directed ARV Aviation to issue a mandatory service bulletin, which calls for replacement of the Hewland AE.75 engine's propeller shaft every lOhr, following a number of failures in service. Production stopped, and 110 workers had been laid off. Although the technical problems were solved, it forced ARV into Administration. In 1988, Island Aircraft was formed to acquire the assets of ARV.
Continued production on the Isle of Wight was considered uneconomic and, in an effort to reduced costs, in 1989 Aviation (Scotland) Ltd. (ASL) was established to take over development. Still the program was plagued with high costs but in 1993 a partner was found in Uvan Invest, a subsidiary of Swedish engineering company Uddeholm Tooling. ASL Sweden was established as a joint venture, under which Scottish-built kits were to be assembled at Hagfors in Sweden. The aircraft was renamed the Opus and the original Hewland powerplant was replaced by the 80 hp Bombardier Rotax 912A four stroke engine. The aircraft was also intended to be available from ASL in kit form under the name Highlander. This was not to come about, and the kit plane was taken over by Highlander Aircraft in the USA.
The factory-built aircraft, now known as the Opus 280, were still intended to be built in Sweden, the company having by now become ASL Hagfors Aero but, by September 1995, they too had gone into voluntary receivership. By August 1996, Highlander had sold six kits. In 1999, SkyCraft purchased rights to Super2 from Highlander Aircraft Corporation. Highlander had obtained the design from Aviation Scotland in UK and became sole source when co-licensee, ASL Hagfors Aero of Sweden, ceased trading in September 1995.
1998-99 kom de exemplar, som mer eller mindre färdigställts i Hagfors, överlåtas på privatpersoner. De flesta (alla?) har kommit i luften klassade Experiment privat. Det handlar om SE-KYP, SE-LCF och SE-LIZ. Har jag missat någon?