Stolp Starduster

Starduster
Stolp-Adams Starduster, amateur-built in 1966, at Long Beach Airport, California, in 1971
Role	Single seat sport aircraft
National origin	United States
Manufacturer	Stolp Aircraft Aircraft Spruce and Specialty
Designer	Louis A Stolp and George M Adams
First flight	November 1957
Status	Plans available (2012)
Unit cost	approximately $3600 to build in 1971
Variants	Stolp Starduster Too

The Stolp-Adams SA-100 Starduster is a U.S. single seat sport biplane designed to be built from plans supplied by Aircraft Spruce and Specialty. Though the first flight was in 1957, Stardusters continue to be built and flown.

The SA-100 Starduster was designed by Louis A Stolp and George M Adams as a light sports aircraft for homebuilding from plans. It is a single bay biplane with fabric covered, wooden framed staggered wings, each pair braced by a single, wide chord interplane strut aided by flying wires. A total of eight centre section struts join the upper wing to the fuselage, basically two pairs in N-form but with the forward strut doubled. The lower wing is unswept and has 1.5° of dihedral; the upper wing has 6° of sweep on its leading edge, no dihedral and a greater span. There are ailerons on the lower wings only, but no flaps.

The fuselage and tail unit have a fabric covered steel tube structure, with the open cockpit positioned just behind the swept upper wing trailing edge which has a rounded cut-out for upward visibility. There is a long and prominent faired headrest behind the cockpit, on top of the curved upper fuselage surface. The Starduster has a conventional tail unit, with a wire braced tailplane and straight tapered, round topped fin and rudder, the latter extending to the keel between split elevators. Both rudder and elevators are horn balanced.

The Starduster has a recommended power range of 125 to 160 hp (93 to 119 kW) and is usually powered by a four-cylinder, horizontally opposed, 125 hp (93 kW) Lycoming O-290-D-1, though more powerful engines of up to 200 hp (150 kW) have been fitted. It has a conventional tailwheel undercarriage. The mainwheels are mounted on V-struts hinged from the lower fuselage longeron, with rubber shock absorbers on diagonal extension struts between wheel and a short, central, under fuselage V-form mounting bracket. The main legs are often partially or completely faired and the wheels enclosed in spats.