Vintage RC Helicopters - Kavan - European RC Helicopter manufacturer

In Doylestown USA and during the 1971 F3A world championships there was a little controversy when Kavan appeared to display the Schlüter Cobra as part of their range; possibly a misunderstanding because Schlüter was already in discussion with Schuco-Hegi.  Kavan approached FW Biesterfeld who in the late 60's, along with other German engineers was chasing the 'first' RC helicopter and developed a set of mechanics that at one point looked like it would achieve success.  It was very stable in the hover but was difficult to achieve translational flight and though 'beaten' in the race by Schlüter for the first successful 'full control' flight he continued its development.  Though Biesterfeld had a near functioning model Huey, Schlüter already had a model of a military helicopter, the popular and well recognised Cobra.  Even though the Huey was as well (if not more so) known it was decided to provide a contrast by kitting the most well know civilian helicopter, the Bell JetRanger.

The JetRanger was displayed at the February 72 Nürnberg Toy Fair and flight developed through the summer before being taken on a 'display' tour and finally brought into production later in the year; thus began the Kavan range of helicopters.

Kavan Timeline

Kavan Gyro

Kavan were very quick to acknowledge that tail control of a collective pitch machine was very difficult and learning  made much more difficult than with a helicopter that had fixed pitch control.  To compensate for this in 1974 they introduced a mechanical gyro which was wired into the feedback potentiometer of the tail rotor servo and worked by moving the neutral point in the feedback circuit thus in effect simulating movement of the transmitter stick.  This worked in 'opposition' to the detected Yaw thus providing dampening of the tail swing caused by collective pitch changes and thus the helicopter was no more difficult than a fixed pitch machine without a gyro.  These were though very expensive and thus not normally fitted; in fact it was to be many years before gyro's were accepted and not considered as 'cheating'; this latter being somewhat like the heading hold verses rate gyro arguments of twenty years later.

Kavan News First Edition  -  A very rare complete first edition of the Kavan News circa mid 70's (75 or 76 from the comments) though no printed date evident so not 100% certain.

Kavan News Bulletins 79-80  -  Kavan produced a number of 'News Bulletins' concerning their helicopters and general manufacturing products for radio control aircraft.

Kavan Aerobatic flying  -  Late in 1979 Kavan produced a leaflet explaining how to successfully complete Aerobatic manoeuvres.  I must admit that even today getting to this point with a modern pod and boom can be 'traumatic', to attempt it first time with something that costs the equivalent of a 'turbine' model today shows that our predecessors had 'Nads' of enormous size.

Kavan General parts list  -  In 1979 Kavan produced a general parts list - may be useful if you have any old parts to identify.

Kavan Catalogue  -  1980 (German version)

Harry Brooks was one of the major Kavan importers and here is a magazine advert (date unknown but suspect early 80's) with a number of Kavan helicopter models.  The prices when projected to today's values show just how expensive RC helicopters were and why it was considered that only an 'elite' few could afford these kinds of RC helicopters.

By 1989 Maurice Tait became the main distributor in the UK for Kavan.

IMPORTANT UPDATE

All parts and manufacturing rights for KAVAN helicopters were bought in 2007 by American RC Helicopters and they then started to produce spares and complete helicopter kits of the old KAVAN range.  Should make restoration much easier though now a Kavan helicopter will not be quite so rare........... However they are also being updated so are not quite the 'real' McCoy!!!!!

My Kavan Helicopters

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