Steen
Skybolt
Photo: Robert Deering 6/15/2013
Denton Municipal Airport (DTO)
Denton, Texas

The Steen Skybolt is an American homebuilt aerobatic biplane. Designed by Lamar Steen as a high school engineering project, the prototype first flew in October 1970.  The aircraft has a classic structure consisting of a welded tube fuselage and wooden wings, all fabric covered. It is a tandem open-cockpit two-seat biplane and is stressed for normal aerobatics. The cockpits are frequently constructed as a single tandem cabin with an enclosing bubble canopy. Some aerobatic competition aircraft are built with single seats with the front cockpit closed off.

The Skybolt has become popular as an amateur-built sporting biplane, with over 400 aircraft having been completed from construction plans sold in over 29 countries. A Skybolt won the Reserve Grand Champion Custom Built for 1979 at the Experimental Aircraft Association airshow in Oshkosh Wisconsin. Sixteen examples were registered in the United Kingdom in January 2009.

VARIANTS    
Skybolt (S) The standard Skybolt as originally released for home-building  
Skybolt (D) A revised structure and capability to have engines from 180 to 350 hp (134 to 261 kW) fitted.  
Skybolt (R) A radial engined derivative, with revised fusellage plus the improved structure of the (D), fitted with either a 360 hp (268 kW) Vedeneyev M14P or a 400 hp (298 kW) Vedeneyev M14PF nine-cylinder radial.  
Skybolt 300 A derivative of the Skybolt fitted with a 300 hp (224 kW) engine.  
Super Skybolt A two seater version created by John Shipler by amalgamating a Pitts S-2 with a Skybolt, the prototype of which is named Storm Warning.