The Raven Explorer II is an American

autogyro An autogyro (from Greek and , "self-turning"), gyroscope, gyrocopter or gyroplane, is a class of rotorcraft that uses an unpowered rotor in free autorotation to develop lift. A gyroplane "means a rotorcraft whose rotors are not engine-d ...

Boulder Colorado Boulder is a home rule city in Boulder County, Colorado, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 108,250 at the 2020 census, it is the most populous city in the county and the 12th-most populous city in Colorado. It is the ...

and later

El Prado, New Mexico El Prado is an unincorporated suburb and census designated place on the north side of Taos, in Taos County, New Mexico, United States. It is generally bounded on the south by the town of Taos, to the east by Taos Pueblo lands, to the north by ...

, introduced in the 1990s. No longer in production, when it was available the aircraft was supplied as a kit for amateur construction.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 328. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998. Introduced in the mid-1990s the Explorer II design is now out of production as the company is developing into the Raven Rotor-Plane for the

light-sport aircraft A light-sport aircraft (LSA), or light sport aircraft, is a category of small, lightweight aircraft that are simple to fly. LSAs tend to be heavier and more sophisticated than ultralight (aka "microlight") aircraft, but LSA restrictions on weigh ...

category.

Design and development

The aircraft was designed to comply with the US ''Experimental - Amateur-built'' aircraft rules. It features a single main rotor, a two-seats-in

side-by-side configuration Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which two or more animals, machines, or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. ''Tandem'' can also be used more generally to refer to any group of persons or objects w ...

open cockpit without a windshield and

conventional landing gear Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft Landing gear, undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the Center of gravity of an aircraft, center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail ...

. The acceptable power range was and the standard engine used is a three cylinder in-line, liquid-cooled,

four-stroke A four-stroke (also four-cycle) engine is an internal combustion (IC) engine in which the piston completes four separate strokes while turning the crankshaft. A stroke refers to the full travel of the piston along the cylinder, in either directio ...

Geo Metro The Geo Metro was a variation of the Suzuki Cultus available in North America from 1989 through 2001 as a joint effort of General Motors (GM) and Suzuki. In the US, the Metro carried a Geo nameplate from 1989 through 1997, and a Chevrolet namepl ...

automotive conversion powerplant in

tractor configuration In aviation, a tractor configuration is a propeller-driven fixed-wing aircraft with its engine mounted with the propeller in front, so that the aircraft is "pulled" through the air. This is the usual configuration; the pusher configuration ...

. The aircraft

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French language, French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds Aircrew, crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an Aircraft engine, engine as wel ...

is made from welded

4130 steel 41xx steel is a family of SAE steel grades, as specified by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Alloying elements include chromium and molybdenum, and as a result these materials are often informally referred to as chromoly steel (common va ...

and bolted-together

aluminum Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

tubing. Its two-bladed rotor has a diameter of . The aircraft's specifications include a typical empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . With full fuel of the payload for the pilot, passengers and baggage is . The standard day, sea level, no wind, take off with a engine is and the landing roll is . The manufacturer estimated the construction time from the supplied kit as 100 hours.

Operational history

In April 2015 no examples were

registered Registered may refer to: * Registered mail, letters, packets or other postal documents considered valuable and in need of a chain of custody * Registered trademark symbol, symbol ® that provides notice that the preceding is a trademark or service ...

in the United States with the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

and it is not clear if any were produced at all.

Specifications (Explorer II)

References

External links

* {{Raven Rotorcraft aircraft

Explorer II ''Explorer II'' was a crewed U.S. high-altitude balloon that was launched on November 11, 1935, and reached a record altitude of . Launched at 8:00 am from the Stratobowl in South Dakota, the helium balloon carried a two-man crew consisting of ...

1990s United States sport aircraft 1990s United States ultralight aircraft 1990s United States civil utility aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined tractor autogyros

Design and development

Operational history

Specifications (Explorer II)

See also

References

External links