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.

[2] The original Europa, (the "Classic"), was designed by Ivan Shaw (born 1945[3]) and the prototype, G-YURO, first flew in February 1992.

[2][4] In the early 1990s the company won a £100,000 grant from the UK Department of Trade and Industry in recognition of its technical achievements.

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".

The design will fit the into the EASA CS-VLA category and will be of all composite construction, with two seats in side-by-side configuration.