Stearman Aircraft

by Phillips, Edward H.

• ISBN13: 9781580070874
• ISBN10: 1580070876
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2006-04-30
• Publisher: Specialty Pr Pub & Wholesalers

Summary

The history of the Stearman Aircraft Company is about American entrepreneurship, aeronautical innovation, and the sheer determination to design and manufacture custom-built airplanes that set a standard for the competition to follow. In his new book Stearman Aircraft, author Edward Phillips follows the career of Lloyd Carlton Stearman from his work on the New Swallow biplane to the expansion of Stearman facilities into Boeing Airplane Company plants. In between was the Travel Air years, out of which came the Model A, B, CH, CW, BW, and Type 5000. The book also pays special attention to Stearman's rare C1 and C2 biplanes, as well as later upgraded C2s, the C3 series, the M-2, the LT-1, the luxurious CAB-1, the Model 6 Cloudboy, and others. During World War II, Boeing's sprawling facilities churned out thousands of Kaydet biplanes to train fledgling aviators, more than 1,600 B-29 Superfortresses heavy bombers to pound Japan into submission, and a steady stream of critical airframe assemblies for the famed B-17 Flying Fortress to reduce Hitler's Third Reich to rubble. For its work on these great aircraft, Boeing's Wichita Division earned six Army-Navy "E" awards for excellence in manufacturing and production.

Author Biography

    

Edward H. Phillips has a passion for the vintage airplanes and companies in Wichita, Kansas, that have contributed so significantly to the birth and growth of commercial aviation in America.  During the past 25 years, Phillips, who holds a journalism degree from the University of North Dakota, has researched and written eight books covering the history of airframe manufacturers that made their home, fame, and fortunes in Wichita.  He is the author of Laird Airplanes: A Legacy of Speed. He lives in Grand Prairie, Texas.

    

Table of Contents

Foreword	4	(1)
Kenneth D. Wilson
About the Author	4	(1)
Acknowledgements	5	(1)
Preface	6	(2)
Early Days	8	(16)
Lloyd Carlton Stearman	24	(4)
California Dreaming	28	(12)
Return to the ``Peerless Princess''	40	(10)
Flying High in Kansas	50	(28)
If Walls Could Talk	78	(14)
Headwinds	92	(24)
Tailwinds	116	(16)
Bombers and Bricks	132	(18)
Stearman at War	150	(21)
Appendix A: Stearman on Parade	171	(24)
Appendix B: Technical Specifications	195	(3)
Appendix C: Stearman Commercial Production List	198	(3)
Appendix D: Stearman Military Production	201	(2)
Appendix E: Stearman Aircraft Scale Drawings	203	(6)
Endnotes	209	(4)
Bibliography	213	(1)
Index	214