The VP Story.

In 1966 William Samuel Evans of La Jolla California, a design specialist for Convair, started work on a new basic simple to build (for the novice homebuilder) aircraft. After nearly three years of design & build the "Volksplane" was first flown from Ramona airport by Walt Mooney on September 6th 1968. The third member of the team C. A. Ackerman, had performed the engine conversion & installation. However, when Volkswagen objected, the aircraft's name was changed to Evans VP1.

The VP1 was a single seat open cockpit low wing monoplane, comprising a Spruce frame, plywood skin & fabric covered wings. It was powered by a 1500cc VW engine.  It cost $1000 to build (including the used engine), weighed in at 440 lbs (nobody knows how, most are lucky to be within the next 100lbs!), Cruise 75 mph, Stall 40 mph, Vne 120 mph, stressed to +4.4  -2.2g. In 1969 N6414 made what is believed to be an unbroken VP record, a ground speed of 195 mph. She was donated to the EAA museum in 1972.

Riding on the success of the VP1, a two seat variant soon followed. N5631 first flew from Ramona in 1971. Being a foot longer than the VP1 at 19ft, an extra 3ft on the wingspan making 27ft, she weighed in at 640 lbs with an 1834cc VW. Although designed as a two place, due to weight restrictions the VP2 is really a large VP1 often flown by straddling both positions. N5631 is still registered in California.

Inevitably (being a homebuilt), over 35 years the VP has evolved (radically in some cases) as constructors build their own personalities into their machines. To the observer, some need careful attention before their pedigree can even be recognized. We may never know how many Volksplane's have been constructed. Many projects were never completed, and some were incorporated into more recent airframes. More than 6000 sets of planes have been sold & dozens of projects are still under construction around the world. However, plans for the VP2 are no longer available from Evans Aircraft.

My VP2, ZS-WZX was build in 1991 by Jan Kemp. It is powered by a converted VW Jetta 1800i engine with a belt reduction drive swinging a wooden de Necker prop. When I acquired the plane it was in real need of some TLC and is now a "work in progress"

Watch these pages to see the progress !