First flown in 1977, the Eagle came into being when Frank Christensen couldn't aquire the Pitts line and decided to go ahead an create a kit airplane based on the S-2 series Pitts while incorporating his own idea's for improvement, and for making it a good kitplane from the builder's perspective.  Ironically, a few years later Christensen was successful at aquiring the Pitts line, although both the Eagle and Pitts' would later be owned by Aviat Aircraft, of Afton WY.

The stock Eagle is basically a refined Pitts S-2A with identical engine and airfoil, however the Eagle has many differences from the Pitts, such as less dihedral on the lower wing, slightly further aft CG, more streamlined cowling, larger rudder, and the wheelbase on it's spring steel landing gear is wider.  The bubble canopy comes further down on the sides of the cockpit, slightly improving visibility, and the cockpit it wider and somewhat more roomy than the Pitts.

The Eagle II is really much more than a high-performance, two seater aerobatic airplane you can build at home. It's a whole new approach to homebuilt aircraft construction. The picture above illustrates this. Here you see portions of the 24 kits required to build the Eagle II. Each kit contains a separate section of the aircraft, and every part; every piece is available today. Each section contains a comprehensive manual detailing the construction methods through diagrams and instructions.

Being a kit aircraft, the Eagle allows a certain freedom of creativity when building.  The original color scheme is so popular that most Eagle's you see will likely look the same, however, several owners have opted for their own color choices and some don't even have the Eagle logo at all, perhaps the most interesting thing that has been done is the addition of the 6-cylinder Lycoming 540!

Perhaps the greatest tribute to Frank Christensen's design is that the famed Eagles Aerobatic Team flew the Christen Eagle I (a modified single-seat Eagle II) for nearly two decades. The Eagles, made up of the Tom Poberezny, Gene Soucy and the late Charlie Hillard switched from using Pitts Specials to the Eagle I in 1979 after being invited to fly the Eagle at the Christen factory. The Eagles never signed a contract to fly Christensen's plane. They continued to fly the aircraft solely because of its aerobatic performance.