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Christen Eagle II

The Christen Eagle, which later became the Aviat Eagle 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. 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 an 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 aluminium 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 aluminium and the rear fuselage and tail covered in fabric. The wing structure is Sitka spruce wood and fabric covered. The engine cowling is fibreglass. By 2011 over 350 aircraft were flying.