Country of origin:

United States of America

Description:

Two-seat military training biplane

Power Plant:

One 168 kw (225 hp) Lycoming R-680-17 direct drive nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engine

Specifications:

History:

In 1934 the Stearman Aircraft Company became a subsidiary of Boeing, and in that year placed in production its Model 73, a derivative of the Stearman Model C series of biplanes. A total of 8,584 examples was built for a variety of military services, along with spares equivalent to a further 1,762 aircraft.

Lloyd Stearman in the 1920s was an engineer with Laird Airplane Company and worked with Walter Beech and Clyde Cessna. At about that time they were involved in the formation of the Travel Air Manufacturing Companhy, Stearman being the chief engineer. In 1927 Stearman, with racing pilot Frederick Hoyt, launched a new company known as the Stearman Aircraft Inc in California, later moving to Wichita in Kansas where production of aircraft commenced.

A number of designs were produced, many with radial engines, and they became known to be rugged and reliable. In 1929 the United Aircraft & Transport Company acquired the Stearman Company, United being involved with United Airlines, Pratt & Whitney engines, Hamilton Standard propellers, Boeing, Sikorsky and Vought. Lloyd Stearman left after some little time and acquired Lockheed, and later again moved on to Stearman-Hammond Aircraft Corporation.

In 1933 an engineering team at the Stearman Division of United produced the Model 70, known as the XPT943, this being a re-design of an aircraft which had become known as the Cloudboy and which was flown to the Army Air Corps technical base at Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio.

Developed to meet the requirements of the US military for a training aircraft, initial orders were 41 aircraft for the US Navy and 26 for the US Army. On 1 April 1938 Boeing obtained the Stearman company and thereafter all aircraft became known as the Boeing Stearman, initial production aircraft being the PT-17 with 164 kw (220 hp) Continental radial engines, some 3,769 examples of this model alone being produced. As production got under way examples were supplied to training centres, many thousands of US and RAF pilots were trained under the Arnold Scheme.

The standard primary trainer of the US military services during World War II, the ‘Stearman’ as it was known, or ‘Kaydet’, was supplied with a variety of engines, including the 168 kw (225 hp) Wright R-790-8 Whirlwind, the R-760 Whirlwind, the 313 kw (420 hp) R-975-E3 Whirlwind, the Lycoming R-680, the 239 kw (320 hp) Pratt & Whitney R-985-T1B Wasp Junior, and others.

The type was also supplied at that time to the Navy of Argentina, the Brazilian Air Force, and the Venezuelan Air Corps, and in later times served with many air forces around the world, including Great Britain, China, Bolivia, Colombia, Paraguay, Cuba, Canada, Guatemala, Peru, The Philippines, and the Dominican Republic.

Army designations were mainly the PT-13D, PT-17 and PT-18 and Navy N2S-1 through to the N2S-5. In order to standardise on the designations of the series, the initial PT-17 and N2S-3 became the PR-13D and N2S-5 respectively, the first with the new designation being delivered on 27 November 1943 with both Army and Navy serial and model numbers. Peak production reached 275 aircraft a month. Production concluded on 14 February 1945.

The military history of the type is too long to relate here. Suffice to say many thousands of wartime pilots commenced their instruction on a model in this series. However, following its retirement from US military service, many thousands of Stearmans were sold to civil operators, and many of these were converted to work as single-seat crop-dusters and sprayers with a variety of engines. Modifications for this role included the installation of war-surplus 336 kw (450 hp) Pratt & Whitney Wasp Junior engines. Occasionally the fuselage or the horizontal tail surfaces were covered with sheet metal. More than 4,000 examples have appeared on the American civil register. However, the high attrition rate in agricultural work reduced this figure and in that role it gave way to new designs specifically built for the purpose.

By the 1970s many survivors of the type were being purchased by vintage aircraft enthusiasts and restored to their original war-time colour schemes and specifications – although a few kept their 336 kw (450 hp) engines. It has been in this role that the type has been seen in this region with 30 examples known to be in Australia, and initially there were five in New Zealand, the latter including ZK-STM (c/n 75-2724), ZK-RRR (c/n 75-647), ZK-TGA (c/n 75-3132), ZK-JID (c/n 75-5064) and ZK-XAF (c/n 75-5907). Further examples were imported to New Zealand in 2011, becoming ZK-USA (c/n 75-8025A – ex N65041), ZK-USN (c/n 73-3655 – ex N115JP) and ZK-NJV, which in early 2018 became ZK-BGY.

The first of the type placed on the Civil Aircraft Register in Australia was VH-AGR, a Model PT-13D, which was manufactured in 1943 as a Model B75N-1.

In 1968 the Stearman Model 75 was used as the basis of an agricultural aircraft engineered by Air New Zealand on behalf of Murrayair of Hawaii, and it became known as the MA-1, but production did not proceed.

However, VH-AGR was not the first of the type in Australia. Two previous examples of the Stearman,  crop-dusting conversions known as the National NA-75, were imported to Australia in the late 1950s. The registrations VH-FBA and VH-FBB were allotted but were not taken up and, after being assembled, having the registrations applied, and remaining at Bankstown, NSW for a short period, they were returned to the USA.

One Stearman named ‘Spartacus’ flown solo by American, Robert Ragozzino, in 2000 successfully completed an around the world flight. This aircraft, fitted with additional fuel tanks to increase capacity to 1,287 litres (283 Imp gals), and fitted with a 336 kw (450 hp) engine, left from Wiley Post airport at Oklahoma City and returned 5½ months (170 days) later after covering 37,014 km (23,000 miles).

A further Stearman arrived in Sydney, NSW on 9 January 2016 flown by American aviatrix Tracey Curtis-Taylor. The aircraft left London on 1 October 2015, covering 21,000 km (13,000 miles) and visiting 23 countries, the aviatrix modelling her trip after Amy Johnson’s flight from Britain to Australia in 1930, the Stearman aircraft carrying the name ‘Spirit of Artemis’.