February 19, 2015 - EAA Chapter Meeting -
Joe's Skybolt Project
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This month's EAA Chapter meeting was in Joe S.'s shop, on a cold February evening, to see his Skybolt project. The Skybolt is an experiemental aerobatic biplane. You build it from plans. It's not a kitplane like the RV. Originally designed by Lamar Steen as a high school engineering project, the first Skybolt flew in 1970. There are around 650 of them built and flying today.
Joe started the project back in 1992 and as you can see is quite far along. The airplane is just about ready for covering and Joe says should be flying in another year.
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After he had finished the wings but not yet started on the fuselage, Joe saw Steve Culp's modified Skybolt with the Russian M-14P radial engine and decided he wanted his to have one too. It required inner section of the wings to be covered with 1/16" plywood instead of fabric to withstand the prop blast from the 360 horsepower engine. The fuselage required considerable beefing up over the original plans. But the Skybolt sure does look great with that big radial up front!
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Joe briefs the Chapter. The Skybolt plans consisted of less than 20 pages of drawings and only two pages of instructions!
Joe had to learn how to gas weld for this project. He learned at one of the two-day EAA-sponsored welding courses.
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The Chapter listens intently.
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| Lots of stuff forward of the firewall including a big oil tank. |
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| After the presentation, the Chapter members migrated over to the snacks table. |
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| Joe's workmanship was outstanding. This Skybolt will be a real beauty in the air. Here, Joe and Mark are probably talking about how they will fly formation together in their Skybolt and Super Chipmunk, respectively. |
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