Steen Aero Labs

In 1968, Lamar Steen wanted to design an easy to build, high-performance two-place aerobatic biplane that larger pilots could easily fit into. The resulting design is the beautiful Skybolt.

Lamar was a shop teacher in Denver, Colorado. In August of 1969, his class began construction, and in October of the following year the prototype flew for the first time, Total cost of the first Skybolt was $5000, including the 180 hp engine.

Cruise with the 180 hp engine was 130 mph, with a stall speed of 55 mph.

Lamar began taking it to all the airshows. It was so popular that he began to sell plans and some of the parts.

Along comes Hale Wallace, a Skybolt builder, with an attention to detail matched by no one. The two became close friends. In the early 90's, Hale retired and decided that he would buy Steen Aero Lab and begin selling plans and producing parts out of his home base in North Carolina.

The Skybolt

Being a little biased, I'd have to say that the Skybolt is the best all around aerobatic biplane out there.

Unlike most homebuilt biplanes, the Skybolt has plenty of room for the pilot and passenger, giving you a comfortable ride as you search for that perfect $100.00 hamburger. (With the price of gas now-a-days its looking more like a $200.00 hamburger.) With the right engine, both the Standard and Radial Skybolt will cruise along at almost 180 mph at 75% power. Not bad for all that drag out in the wind.

Sitting in the Skybolt is like sitting in any other biplane as far as sighting goes. It's bat-blind forward. It just takes a little getting use to. It's well worth the temporary blind spot out front. And... what are you doing on the ground anyways... it's a biplane for God's sake. If you're sitting in it for that long of time you need to move it out of JFK and put it on a little grass strip where the only other plane in the pattern is a Taylorcraft, Waco or ...

Once in the air it's a great flying machine. She's able to do extreme aerobatics, and unlike a Pitts, she's easy to land. None of that squirrely-narrow-gear-hot-landing-stuff of the Pitts. Although.. when doing a bit of aerobatic training with Bill Finnigan I landed the S2C on the grass between the runway and the taxi way, no more than 30 feet wide, and, although exciting, it was fun to do. Not to go down a tangent, but, the Pitts, Skybolt and any other highly sensitive airplane, does EXACTLY what YOU tell it to do. If ya don't know what you're doing or what to tell it to do... well, you're in a heap of sh*t my good man.

Unlike many of the homebuilt biplanes out there, it has two seats so that you can enjoy the ride with a friend. It's also wide/large enough for you to have a little wiggle room for comfort on those longer cross-country flights. Another tangent here... it doesn't really matter what "ergonomic" discomforts you need to sustain when flying your plane. You like it for what it is and you live with this “compromise” if you want to call it that.

Sorta like the Taylorcraft I had. You'd read articles that mention how the top of the window was inline with your line of sight and how much of a pain in the ass it was flying with it like this (all of the negatives you'll read about a plane are mostly by some columnist writing about the plane, not the guy or gal who has fallen in love with the plane for all it's good and "bad" qualities.) I flew with it for 12 years and never thought about it twice. It was what it was and I worked around it. There were TOO many great things about the T-craft that this one slight "flaw" was nothing to be noted.

Anyways... the 'bolt is slightly larger in the seating area than most homebuilt biplanes. I guess it's nicer for longer flights but I'm not up in the air for comfort. I'm up there 'cause I enjoy flying. With that said... I'm told the added "comfort" is nice when flying from point A to point B. Nuff said.

As of this date (12/8/06) there are approx 650 Skybolts flying world-wide. And a lot more are under construction. It's been around for awhile and as you see, many examples are flying.

It was originally designed to take engines from 180 to 260 hp. The "R" model was specifically designed for the Russian Vendeneyev M-14P of 360 and M-14PF of 400 hp. Hang one of these engines on the front of her and she's climbs like a home sick angel.

BREAKING NEWS Dec 13, 2006 (for me at least) The 3-piece Upper Wing is now drawn up in CAD with all fittings etc in detail. JUST ordered the newer updated drawings.

Another variant is the "D" model. The supplemental drawings for the "Delta" Skybolt has the 3-piece wing (which also comes with the "R" model supplemental drawings)

Building the Skybolt is much easier with Steen Aero alive and active and all the knowledge that you gleen from the guys on the Biplane Forum. Some of the plans built aircraft have a small following, and, unless you know quite a bit more, than nothing, about building airplanes it's going to be a LARGE learning curve you'll need to climb to get it built. Being a member of the local EAA Chapter would come in mighty fine in this case, a must in fact.

More about the Skybolt...