Early in the Summer of 2004, Don and I decided that we needed to get the Gyrobee back in the air if we were going to do any significant flying. We pulled the prototype Bee from its storage in the pole barn and evaluated what it would take to put it back in the air. Since many of the airframe components were as much as 15 years old and it had been in storage for several years, it looked like a lot of work, including a complete tear-down and hardware replacement and a completely new paint job. In short, a complete rebuild! Since we had always thought in terms of eventually donating the prototype to a museum, we next considered what it would take to build a new one. We certainly had no intention of building from scratch, but we really didn't have to. Star Bee Gyros has some very nice kit and component options at very reasonable prices, so that would be our starting point. The links below describe the different stages in bringing to project to completion.

If you are thinking about building a Star Bee kit, I would strongly suggest that you read through these sections prior to starting. There are lots of things that caused setbacks and little is worse then having to disassemble something you have just put together. What is more, if there are possible problems with the airframe, for example, fixing the problems is much easier if you haven't already mounted the engine! The Star Bee kit is a good one, but you will have issues!