A vintage Stearman PT-17 biplane aircraft arrived in
Scottsdale recently and will eventually become a display piece hanging from the
ceiling of the future Thunderbird Field II Plaza and Memorial at the Scottsdale
Aviation Business Center. The plane’s
flight originated in Cotter, Arkansas and made several stops on its way to
Scottsdale.
You may be wondering what the Stearman aircraft was. I spent four years in the U. S. Air Force in
the early to mid 1960’s and must confess that I never heard of it until this
year when I read a great book called “Flight of Passage” written by a guy named
Rinker Buck. In that book, Mr. Buck
recounts a trip he and his brother Kern made as teenagers in 1966 from New
Jersey to California flying in a small unadorned Piper Cub aircraft.
Rinker and Kern’s father was an old time stunt pilot who
flew many different planes including Stearmans in an earlier era and had been
highly impressed with the crop duster pilots of the mid-west who he referred to
as the “Stearmen men of the west.” More
about those guys momentarily but for now I’ll say that Rinker and Kern Buck
discovered that some of those guys weren’t exactly the romantic heroes that Mr.
Buck senior envisioned.
As far as the Stearman PT-17 Trainer, the company had quite a
history after being founded by Lloyd Stearman in 1927 as the Stearman Aircraft
Corporation. Their factory was built in
Wichita, Kansas and by 1934 the company was bought out by Boeing. The PT-17 was a tough little plane and was
usually the first aircraft a pilot in training would fly when becoming a U. S.
Naval Aviator or Army Air Corps Cadet.
Although the U. S. Army Air Corps needed new bi-plane
trainers by the mid 1930’s they were hampered by a lack of funds needed for
purchasing them. Fortunately, after the
Navy’s purchase of some Stearmans in 1935, the Army was able to follow in 1936
with a purchase of 26 of their own. By
1940, 3,519 Stearman trainers were delivered mostly because of the threat of
World War II. It was a popular plane as
it was rugged, easy to fly, and very forgiving of new pilots which takes us
back to the previously mentioned “Stearmen men of the west.”
Barb, me, and the Stearman
Barb, me, and the Stearman
After landing their Piper Cub in Brinkley, Arkansas to get
fuel and spend the night, Rinker and Kern got a reality check when they found
that the so called “Stearmen men of the west” would never receive any awards
for congeniality. While being lauded by
their father, the boys found that the crop dusters had no use for what they
called “prettyboy pilots.” To say those
guys were obnoxious and ill mannered would be to give them credit. They were far from having the great “Stearmen
men of the west” label given to them by the boys’ father.
Later, the airport manager explained that a lot of those
guys were rejects with bad accident histories, license violations, and poor
medical histories who would never be hired by the military or any
airlines. In a word, they were “down and
outers” doing crop dusting for a living to support their welfare checks.
Fortunately, the Stearman PT-17 that arrived in Scottsdale
is in mint condition and before it is put on permanent display, it will be
flown to various locations as a fund raising tool.
PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS BELOW. THANKS!
PLEASE LEAVE COMMENTS BELOW. THANKS!
