In the middle of the global COVID-19 crisis, CubCrafters has some good news to share with the international aviation community: Years of work to get the CubCrafters XCub certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has paid off, and now the first of several new EASA-approved XCubs has shipped from the United States to the United Kingdom.
The aircraft, to be placed on the United Kingdom registry as G-OBTO, is the first ever EASA certified aircraft to be approved with Garmin’s G3X Touch glass panel avionics suite, according to CubCrafters officials.
The inaugural customer, Gerhard Oberholzer, intends to base the aircraft at Fowlmere Airfield north of London.
“A key purpose of having an aircraft like this is to be able to travel across England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland on business, enabling very efficient access to often remote parts of the islands — using the aircraft as a working tool,” Oberholzer said. “The XCub, with its higher cruising speed and modern avionics, coupled with an advanced autopilot, made a lot of sense. I’m very pleased with where we ended up.”
CubCrafters was awarded EASA certification for the XCub in 2018 after having shown full compliance with all European airworthiness, safety, and environmental requirements. The company then followed up the initial EASA certification with a groundbreaking effort to offer Garmin’s non-TSO’d touch screen glass panel avionics to European customers, the only OEM manufacturer to do so in a certified aircraft, according to company officials.
“The European market is very important to us in the continuing expansion of international XCub sales opportunities,” said Patrick Horgan, president of CubCrafters. “There has been a lot of hard work getting to this point with EASA. We are extremely pleased to see the market has responded and the first new XCubs are now headed for Europe.”
Kamil Skorupski, who manages distribution of the XCub in Europe as part of the CubCrafters global sales network, is seeing a keen anticipation for the new aircraft.
“Within a year we will have XCubs based in the UK, Iceland, Germany, and France,” he reports. “Interest is strong and will only grow as more aircraft arrive and European pilots can personally see the style, safety, and utility the XCub offers.”
Delivery positions for new EASA-certified XCubs are available for mid-2021.
CubCrafters CC19 XCub is a two-seat, tandem single-engine, piston, high-wing aircraft intended for both on and off-airport operations. The XCub is certified in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Australia, and Kenya, with more international certifications planned.