The Sky Baby was designed by Ray Stits, who built his Junior in 1948. No sooner had Stits completed it than word spread that someone was working on a design just a fraction smaller. Not about to be inched out of his record, Stits set to work again and finished the Sky Baby at his Riverside, California workshop in the summer of 1952.
It was incredibly small, with biplane wings 2.18 m (7 ft 2 in) in span. The Sky Baby was powered by a 112 hp Continental engine, race tuned, which gave it a maximum speed close to 322 kph (200 mph).
Bob Starr, Ray Stits’ partner, flew it and had the experience and outstanding piloting qualities which the tricky midget apparently demanded. There was a second pilot, Lester Cole of Cole Bros Airshows.
The Sky Baby still holds the title of world’s smallest aircraft in 1980. It was preserved at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s museum in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, then on display at Smithsonian Air & Space museum.
SA-2A Sky-Baby
Engine: 65hp Continental C-65
Wingspan: 2.18 m (7 ft 2 in)
Length: 11’4″
Empty weight: 452 lb
Gross wt: 666 lb
Useful load: 214 lb
Maximum speed: 185 mph
Stall: 55 mph
Seats: 1
All Aero 