The Stolp Starduster Too SA300 is a two-seat,

conventional landing gear Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft Landing gear, undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the Center of gravity of an aircraft, center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail ...

equipped,

homebuilt Homebuilt machines are machines built outside of specialised workshops or factories. This can include different things such as kit cars or homebuilt computers, but normally it pertains to homebuilt aircraft, also known as amateur-built aircraft or ...

biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...

. Aircraft Spruce & Specialty Co currently holds rights to sell plans for the aircraft.

Design and development

The Starduster Too was developed to be an economical two-seat sport biplane. The airplane is designed to plus 6 or minus 6 G loading. It was not intended for use in aerobatic competition, but it can perform basic aerobatics. The fuselage is made of

4130 steel 41xx steel is a family of SAE steel grades, as specified by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE). Alloying elements include chromium and molybdenum, and as a result these materials are often informally referred to as chromoly steel (common va ...

tubing with fabric covering. The spars are made of

spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' ...

wood with plywood wooden wing ribs. The base engine is a

Lycoming O-360 The Lycoming O-360 is a family of four-cylinder, direct-drive, horizontally opposed, air-cooled, piston aircraft engines. Engines in the O-360 series produce between , with the basic O-360 producing . The engine family has been installed in ...

engine, but alternative examples have been built using the

Lycoming IO-540 The Lycoming O-540 is a family of air-cooled six-cylinder, horizontally opposed fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter engines of displacement, manufactured by Lycoming Engines. The engine is a six-cylinder version of the four-cylinder Lycoming O-3 ...

, Ranger, Ford V-8 and V-6, Continental, Jacobs, and even

Pratt & Whitney R-985 The Pratt & Whitney R-985 Wasp Junior is a series of nine-cylinder, air-cooled, radial engine, radial aircraft engines built by the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company from the 1930s to the 1950s. These engines have a Engine displacement, displace ...

engines.

Operational history

The Starduster Too is a popular biplane homebuilt design. There are several with over 2500 hours of flight time, and one with over 5000 hours.

Variants

The Stolp Acroduster, and Stolp Acroduster Too, were the follow on models to the Starduster. They were scaled down 10 percent, and stressed to 9g. The first example was registered as a Schrack-Stolp Super Starduster Too. One example of a Starduster Too was modified with retractable gear and a sliding canopy. The aircraft named "Samsong" was able to cruise at 150 mph, and had an 830-mile range with 45 gallons of fuel using modified gear legs from a

Cessna 140 The Cessna 120, 140, and 140A, are single-engine, two-seat, conventional landing gear (tailwheel), light general aviation aircraft that were first produced in 1946, immediately following the end of World War II. Production ended in 1951, and ...

Specifications Starduster Too

References

* Taylor, John W. R. ''Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1966–67''. London:Sampson Low, Marston & Company, 1966. * Taylor, John W. R. ''Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1988–89''. Coulsdon, UK: Jane's Defence Data, 1988. .

External links