Raven-11b (2008), and Raven-3 (1983)

Raven R/C R/G's By Bob Parks 1980's & 90's

Bob Parks' Raven-3 on First E6 boost

Early Ravens for S8E - 1982 thru early 1990's  A brief history of Ravens, by Bob Parks: The Raven came into existence when the S8 rules did [around 1981]. Raven 1 and 2 were for the Florida flyoffs (1982). The flyoffs rules that year did not allow F7's as the previous ones had, and there was now a 20.01Ns minimum. So those two used FSI E5 motors (I think) which were certified as D's. Low wing, lots of dihedral, with a motor on each side of the fuselage, nozzles canted out quite a bit. Full flying horizontal tail on top of the vertical (T tail). (see more comments later) Raven-1 was the prototype and too big so too close to the weight limit with the heavy motors. No photos that I know of, but its distinctive feature was that the wing was covered with PINK Sig tissue. Raven-2 was the one used at the flyoffs. Karen had 3 of them and I think I had 2 or 3. Mostly done in black monokote. The big advantage was the side by side motors, thrust line aligned with the CG in pitch. The FSI motors were horribly inconsistent, and the side by side arrangement turned that into yaw which the dihedral turned into roll. So the first couple seconds were wild with the thing rolling one way then the other, but roll is not a DQ.. pitch is. ;-) George's note - An extremely important thing occurred between the 1982 flyoffs, and the 1983 WSMC. Bob worked with Gary Rosenfield of Aerotech, to develop a long burn 40 N-sec composite E engine that was optimal to use for an S8E model. That engine was the Aerotech E6. Overnight S8E (in the U.S.) went from an event with a terribly poor choice of engine power to one with a PERFECT engine. So then Bob was able to design a good model that was optimized to fly on the E6, starting with Raven-3. To continue Bob's history: Raven- 3 was the one for 1983 WSMC. The results were Phil Barnes first, Karen second, me third, which, of course is team gold. I got really clobbered on the last flight, since I was flying last in the round. Phil had OK weather early in the round, then Karen did OK but had to do a reflight, but by the time I flew it was a hard rain. There are some photos of these... and we still have one of Karen's that I occasionally have delusions of making flyable again. Raven-4.. I forget! Design concept that never got built Raven-5 1990 flyoffs (Dallas) for US-USSR Exchange Meet team. First computer designed airfoil for S8 (BP2d) and also first inverted V tail S8 model (with internal linkages). Good performance, but heavy, and the Selig tail airfoil had stability problems on glide. It eventually broke up at the end of boost, I think due to tail flutter from the reworked tail. Only one built. there might be photos somewhere, but no idea where. Raven-6 Bigger, cleaner version of R5. about 245 sq in. Inverted V tail, new molded pod. 2nd generation computer airfoil (BP6e). Prototype had a thin tail with normal linkages. Very accurate tissue over balsa over foam wing with sanded and polished doped finish. Tracked to 352 meters on an E6, with a liftoff weight of 285 grams. There was supposed to be a second model made for USSR, but it never got finished because of the team shakeup due to the Russian coup. All the time got spent on getting Karen's 1983 Raven 3 models working again and developing the S4 Hummingbird design. Raven-6 won the S8 event with 3 maxes in overcast and wind. Karen was second with 2 maxes and 20 seconds short (drifting downwind on the last flight). Phil was 4th, not sure what he was flying that year. Also might be some photos somewhere. Raven-7 you have already. [Near bottom of this page] Raven- 8 was supposed to be the 1993 flyoffs model. Never finished. Inverted V tail, but designed for some custom made 1.5 gram servos (the Parkzone servos are a copy of these). Special computer designed tail airfoils (BP12T) to minimize servo loads. Balsa over foam construction. I never went to those flyoffs. (just was not possible to build models and be a full time dad with a baby!). I gave all the parts to Ducky Klouser, not sure what he did with them. [History continued on the Newer Ravens page.]

Raven-2 at the 1982 flyoffs Note the twin E5 pods (Photo by Bob Parks)     Bob & Karen's Raven-2's in car at 1982 flyoffs     A flying wing model that Bob had tested for the 1982 flyoffs. But unfortunately it had a plug burn thru on one of the E5's, catching it on fire.

Raven-3    First R/C R/G to fly on an E6 - 1983 - Testing & Practicing for the 1983 WSMC

Bob Parks with several Raven-3's
Bob's wife Karen Dillon, with her Raven-3		D12 practice boost by Karen, photo taken by a news photographer
D12 boost	First E6 boost

Raven-3     Follow-ups (after 1983)

In the mid 1980's and into the 1990's, the Raven-3 type design was used by a number of U.S. R/C R/G fliers, as Bob freely shared info and plans for it. Among them was Jim Wilkerson, who flew a Raven to take a Bronze medal at the 1985 WSMC (where once again Phil Barnes took Gold with a DarkStar-5). Ben Roberto made his own series of Raven models, as did George Riebesehl. Below are a number of drawings made by Ben Roberto, including the Raven-160 which was flown by Chris Morgan and apparently similar to the Raven flown by Jim Wilkerson. The Raven-3 design also became a starting point for others to modify, build their own versions, or design new models which were influenced by the Raven-3. Continuing to Kevin McKiou's KnightStar series, and even Kevin's "Cuda" has a large Raven-3 style influence.

Jim Wilkerson flew a Raven-3 to a Bronze medal at the 1985 WSMC

Kevin McKiou's KnightStar-4 with Raven-3 influence

Raven 150 by Ben Roberto	Raven 150 Wing Center Section	Raven 150 Wing & Tail
Raven 150 Fuselage Pod	Raven 155 by Ben Roberto	Raven 160 by Chris Morgan

Raven 150-160 style Pod Pattern

Raven-3   and Raven-5   - at the US-USSR Exchange Meet in Russia (1991)

Bob making the last flight as Karen watches. Bob flew a Raven-5, Karen flew an old Raven-3.	Bob & Karen after the last flight	Phil Barnes, Karen Dillon, & Bob Parks. Bob took 1st, Karen 2nd, and Phil 4th. The U.S. team won over the Russian team

Raven-7 F & G R/C R/G Kit Prototype - 1992 By early 1992, Bob Parks designed the Raven-7. It was similar to some of his earlier Raven designs, but was scaled up to 60" span to be flown on 32mm reloads such as the F13 and G12, or even the F23 reload. It was intended to be a second R/C R/G kit by Aerotech, as a companion or alternative to the Pheonix (which Bob also designed), but unfortunately it was never kitted. While it was still a prospective Aerotech kit, Bob asked me if I'd be interested in building the second prototype, to give feedback for the instructions. Of course! It was a nice model to build, I had not even built a Raven style model before. Was a nice flying model, for boost and glide, would have made such a nice kit for an F or G powered model. It was a bit heavy, as Bob wanted the wing to be able to hold up to an F23 boost, and the 1/2" fiberglass tailboom was pretty much bulletproof. I ended up using it in G R/G at NARAM-34 in 1992, using an F10 and D12 that lit about 1 second into the boost (The G12 reloads were not contest certified at the time). That flight went pretty well. Second flight was an F10 with a second F10 intended to ignite about 1 second before the first F10 burned out. The second one ignited about 4 seconds into the first F10 burn, causing an incredible acceleration till the first 10 burned out, so it was a good thing that wing was "F23" rated after all. Have flown Raven-7 a few times since, though not since 1999. It boosted best when using and G12 and E6 clustered, flew that way a few times at NSL-99 in Huntsville.

George's Raven-7 model, with newly-built Piggyback Orbiter & Astro-Blaster (1992 photo)

Raven-7 at NARAM-34 (note air-start engine pod added)	Preparing for flight, with Jay Marsh, at NARAM-34
Raven-7 in tower, "top" view	Raven-7 with Bison (Czech Delta) S8E kit model

Raven-7 Plans at 50% Scale	Raven-7 Plans at 100% Scale

Raven-7's amazing dumb accident at NARAM-35 (1993) At NARAM-35, in 1993, I made a few Sport flights with Raven-7. After flying around for a few minutes, it was getting low enough to need to prepare for landing, so I started to turn it back towards the sport range for the initial landing approach cycle. Meanwhile, Ken Brown was launching one of his OddRocs. It was a converted Arm and Hammer Detergent bottle. It launched, and ejected its chute at a nice altitude. Raven-7 was already pointed in that general area, but a few hundred feet out. I decided to try to "buzz" Ken's model, going into a very shallow dive to get some more speed to get closer to it before it got too low. And it was working out well. But then at the last moment I realized Raven-7 was at about the same altitude, and not above Ken's model. I tried to pull up, but too late. The nose of the glider flew THROUGH the middle of the shroud lines, tangling the Raven in the chute, and the chute stayed open rather than collapsing. I could probably try to do that on purpose 100 times and not get the glider nose to spear thru the shroud lines that perfectly, it was just really bizarre. Unable to glide due to the drag of the open chute, Raven-7 descended nose-first with Ken's model, and fell to the ground at about a 45 degree angle. The nose section of Raven-7 was damaged, and the servo rails came loose, but otherwise it was not badly damaged and quickly fixed at home. IIRC, Ken's model was not damaged. One funny thing of it all was that Ken came over to me and said something like "George, I'm sorry my model got in your glider's way". He did not realize I was trying to buzz his model and blew it, 100% my fault, as I explained to him. That accident won me my first "Best Midwest Qualified Flight" (Prang/Crash) award. I won that highly-not-sought-after award again in 2000 when my X-1 literally crashed and burned.

Post-accident photo, still tangled up. The guilty model that "got in the way" of Raven-7. Well, no, not really.....