Homebuilt Airplane, a Trip to the Past for Jet Aviation Tech Tom Braun
Homebuilder Tom Braun estimates that his Steen Skybolt is nearly identical to the one his grandfather built in the early 1980s. The aircraft is more than 75 percent complete and moving toward a first flight next year.
Homebuilder Tom Braun estimates that his Steen Skybolt is nearly identical to the one his grandfather built in the early 1980s. The aircraft is more than 75 percent complete and moving toward a first flight next year.

The NTSB report of the 1985 accident is sparse, noting only that the aerobatic airplane lost altitude and crashed after entering a roll approximately 100 above the ground. Then-11-year-old Tom Braun, who was a passenger, doesn’t remember much about the impact that claimed his father’s life and destroyed the scratch-built Steen Skybolt. A third-generation pilot, Braun today works as a sheet-metal technician at Jet Aviation’s St. Louis MRO and completions facility. His grandfather, who served as a B-26 pilot during World War II, spent years building the Skybolt from plans in his Swansee, Ill. garage. Braun is nearing completion of his own near-identical Skybolt in the very same garage, drawing on his 20 years of experience in the aircraft maintenance industry.

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