1977 Christen Eagle II
The Christen Eagle II, which later became the Aviat Eagle II in the mid-1990s, is an aerobatic sporting biplane aircraft that has been produced in the United States since the late 1970s.
Designed to compete with the Pitts Special by Frank Christensen originally of Salt Lake City, Utah, the Eagle II is marketed in kit form for homebuilding. It set a new standard for completely documented homebuilding kits that revolutionized the homebuilding industry. The Eagle II is a small aircraft of conventional configuration with single-bay, equal-span staggered biplane wings braced with streamlined flying and landing wires and a I-strut to form a box truss.
The pilot and a single passenger sit in tandem underneath a large bubble canopy. The tailwheel undercarriage is fixed, with the mainwheels mounted on spring aluminum legs. The main wheels are housed in streamlined fairings. The fuselage and tail are constructed of chromoly steel welded tube, with the forward fuselage skinned in aluminum and the rear fuselage and tail covered in fabric. The wing structure is Sitka spruce wood and fabric covered. The engine cowling is fiberglass. By 2011 over 350 aircraft were flying.
This aircraft was operated at the Sikorsky Memorial Airport for many years and was eventually donated by David Faile to the Connecticut Air & Space Center and is in-fact airframe 001. The very first Eagle produced. The goal is to eventually suspend the Eagle II inverted from the ceiling of the restored Curtiss Hangar.