Photograph:
An American registered 2XS (Raven Aircraft)
Country of origin:
Canada
Description:
Two-seat high-performance sport biplane
Power Plant:
One 246 kw (330 hp) Lycoming IO-550 six-cylinder horizontally-opposed air-cooled engine
Specifications:
- Wingspan: 5.85 m (19 ft 2 in)
- Length: 5.91 m (19 ft 4 in)
- Height: 2.01 m (6 ft 6 in)
- Wing area: 11.09 m² (119.4 sq ft)
- Max speed: 322 km/h (200 mph)
- Cruising speed: 303 km/h (188 mph)
- Stalling speed: 97 km/h (60 mph)
- Roll rate: 330 degrees/second
- Rate of climb: 1,006 m/min (3,300 ft/min)
- Fuel capacity: 140 litres (31 imp gals)
- Empty weight: 535 kg (1,180 lb)
- Loaded weight: 807 kg (1,780 lb)
History:
For some years the Canadian company, Raven Aircraft, specialised in building and supplying parts for Pitts S-1 and S-2 aerobatic aircraft. The Company, based at Surrey in British Colombia in more recent times has supplied plans and kits for amateur constructors to build the Raven 2XS, a fully aerobatic biplane which seats two in tandem under a bubble canopy and is fitted with a fixed conventional tailwheel undercarriage.
The aircraft is built of welded steel tube using aluminium and wood, the flying surfaces being covered in doped aircraft fabric. Power plants in the range 194 kw to 298 kw (260 hp to 400 hp) can be installed but most examples have the 209 kw (280 hp) Lycoming IO-540 unit driving a three-blade composite propeller. The aircraft has a roll rate of 330 degrees/second. The first example was completed in the United States.
The Raven 2XS is a high-performance aerobatic biplane produced by the Raven Aircraft Corporation in the United States for unlimited competition. First of the type imported to this region for construction was imported to New Zealand in 2012.