ARV Super2

Super2
Role	Light Aircraft
National origin	United Kingdom
Manufacturer	ARV
Designer	Bruce Giddings
First flight	11 March 1985
Status	Production discontinued
Number built	about 40

The ARV Super2 is a British two-seat, strut-braced, shoulder wing, tricycle landing gear light aircraft designed by Bruce Giddings. Available either factory-built or as a kit, it was intended to be both a cost-effective trainer and an affordable aircraft for private owners. Later called the "Opus", it gained US Federal Aviation Administration Light-sport aircraft approval in February 2008.

About 35 aircraft were produced in the 1980s before the Isle of Wight-based company went into liquidation. Subsequently there have been a number of attempts to restart production, all unsuccessful, of which the most recent was by Opus Aircraft. In November 2013, Opus Aircraft announced that its assets had been auctioned off successfully, adding: "We hope to see our plans continued and to see the all-aluminum plane flying by 2015".

Richard Noble, the world 1983 land speed record holder and UK entrepreneur, identified a gap in the market for a low-cost lightweight two-seat trainer, after expensive product-liability lawsuits in the USA had driven the major American general aviation manufacturers temporarily to abandon production of such aircraft. Noble established a factory at Sandown on the Isle of Wight to build the ARV Super2 aircraft, with the first prototype flying on 11 March 1985. The factory used some novel manufacturing techniques, including British ALCAN's "Supral" (a superplastic aluminium alloy), adhesives (to reduce rivet count and save weight), and a bespoke new British engine, the Hewland AE75. These innovations gave the ARV an empty weight 40% lower than the Cessna 152, making the Super2 both cheaper to buy and to operate. The manufacturer claimed it could reduce pilot training costs by 25%

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