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I have a question and I don't mean to offend anyone but why do so many people seem to be building Stardusters and Acrosports when the ultimate bi plane is the Pitts. It it cost, ease of build, or am I missing the point all together ?
As I said, not to offend, a genuine question.
This is an age old question that many first time builders agonize over, that has been asked on this site numerous times before, and not easily answered? Personally I see two camps.
One being what I call the sport biplane enthusiast, they want a biplane as a weekend cruiser, capable of some mild aerobatic that is appealing in its looks, ground handling and most sport biplanes fit this image.
The other camp is the dedicated aerobatic pilot and or others that have the same interest and goal, mostly competition aerobatics, and the few others that are into performing airshows. Some are satisfied with a basically stock two aileron single place Pitts, others want the ultimate a Wolf Pitts with all of the carbon fiber mods and a pumped up fire breathing lycoming with a claw propeller! It is kind a like an addiction, once you go up and over, or experience a 360 + degree roll rate, or multiple consecutive snap rolls, one wants an airplane that can and will do all of them even better, and of course most Pitts single or two place airplanes will do more than the skill level of most week end want to be acro pilots, my opinion?
As a Starduster guy, having built the major parts of all three of them as well as the Marquart MA-4 and a 540 powered Skybolt, Aerobatics where not the issue for me, but having worked for Lou Stolp as a young an impressionable lad and later after retirement after a friend bought the company. I have a great personal interest in this airplane, many like the Starduster because of its looks, and like my son said, dad it is an airplane that has sex appeal, in that it has all of the curves in the right place, and few will argue that point! I do not mean to imply that it is a better airplane, but not many are better looking, again my opinion? Their certainly are better ones depending on the mission, and a Pitts especially for aerobatics's is certainly at the top of the list when it comes to this, and I would not argue that point.
So the interest and decision to build any of these incredible biplanes from a baby Great lakes to a fire breathing one of a kind ultimate 300+hp biplane with every sort of mod known to man is again in my opinion in the eye of the beholder!
As you can see by the pictures the Starduster Too has all of the curves in the right places! Dave
I have a question and I don't mean to offend anyone but why do so many people seem to be building Stardusters and Acrosports when the ultimate bi plane is the Pitts. It it cost, ease of build, or am I missing the point all together ?
As I said, not to offend, a genuine question.
This is an age old question that many first time builders agonize over, that has been asked on this site numerous times before, and not easily answered? Personally I see two camps.
One being what I call the sport biplane enthusiast, they want a biplane as a weekend cruiser, capable of some mild aerobatic that is appealing in its looks, ground handling and most sport biplanes fit this image.
The other camp is the dedicated aerobatic pilot and or others that have the same interest and goal, mostly competition aerobatics, and the few others that are into performing airshows. Some are satisfied with a basically stock two aileron single place Pitts, others want the ultimate a Wolf Pitts with all of the carbon fiber mods and a pumped up fire breathing lycoming with a claw propeller! It is kind a like an addiction, once you go up and over, or experience a 360 + degree roll rate, or multiple consecutive snap rolls, one wants an airplane that can and will do all of them even better, and of course most Pitts single or two place airplanes will do more than the skill level of most week end want to be acro pilots, my opinion?
As a Starduster guy, having built the major parts of all three of them as well as the Marquart MA-4 and a 540 powered Skybolt, Aerobatics where not the issue for me, but having worked for Lou Stolp as a young an impressionable lad and later after retirement after a friend bought the company. I have a great personal interest in this airplane, many like the Starduster because of its looks, and like my son said, dad it is an airplane that has sex appeal, in that it has all of the curves in the right place, and few will argue that point! I do not mean to imply that it is a better airplane, but not many are better looking, again my opinion? Their certainly are better ones depending on the mission, and a Pitts especially for aerobatics's is certainly at the top of the list when it comes to this, and I would not argue that point.
So the interest and decision to build any of these incredible biplanes from a baby Great lakes to a fire breathing one of a kind ultimate 300+hp biplane with every sort of mod known to man is again in my opinion in the eye of the beholder!
As you can see by the pictures the Starduster Too has all of the curves in the right places! Dave
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