CMF Acquires Historical Boeing Stearman (4 x Pics)

[JohnB]

Quite right...
I know the pieces of which you speak. A friend rebuilt a former sprayer and I helped him attach new ones (the old ones were well worn and still smelled of chemicals).

I mentioned wood in my post asking whether the metal covering conversion used them, not the original Stearman-Boeing build...since the conversion does not follow the original factory fuselage lines.

[Dan Jones]

Many of the post-war sprayer conversions had either a metalized or a fibreglass covered fuselage fitted with multiple, removable panels held on with dzus fasteners so that at the end of the day the fuselage could be essentially "stripped" and then hosed out. Some of the chemicals that were sprayed back in those days would just literally eat the airplanes alive. If that airplane is to do any flying have a very careful look at the wing hardware, particularly the metal plates on the wing spars. With the spray residue getting inside the wings, over time some of that stuff has taken on the look and strength of old cardboard.

[M-62A]

daveymac82c
I have transcribed the USAAF individual aircraft record cards for PT-18s 40-1965 and 40-1966.
This shows where 40-1966 served and when it was redesignated as a PT-17.
40-1965 makes an interesting comparison as it remained as a PT-18.

Model: PT-18
Serial No. 40-1965
A.C Contract No. W 535 AC-13244
Cost: $7,160.
Date Received: 10-19-40.
Assigned to Sikeston, MO.
reassigned to Hemet, CA., 1-24-42.
reassigned to Ontario, CA., 2-11-42.
reassigned to Oxnard, CA., 7-13-42.
reassigned to Thunderbird 2, (date undecipherable)
reassigned to Chickasha, OK (date undecipherable)
reassigned to Goodfellow Field, TX (date undecipherable)
reassigned Selman Field, TX 9-23 (probably 1945)
to C.A.P North Carolina (probably also Sept 1945)
to Class 01Z, July 1947
Struck off 13 Oct 1947.(possibly to Civil Air Patrol).

Model: PT-18
Serial No. 40-1966
A.C Contract No. W 535 AC-13244
Cost: $7,160.
Date Received: 10-18-40.
Assigned to Sikeston, MO.
reassigned to Hemet, CA., 1-24-42.
reassigned to Ontario, CA., 2-11-42.
reassigned to Oxnard, CA., 7-13-42.
Redesignated to PT-17 per DA27
LG Ontario California dated 7-28-43.
reassigned Perrin Field 9-20- (44?)
reassigned to Chickasha, OK 10-18- (44?)
reassigned San Angelo, TX 5-31- (45?)
transferred to Reconstuction Finance Corporation 6-29-45
sold from the Defense Plant Corporation field at Baton Rouge, LA.

My speciality are the Fairchild PTs but I have are several comments that might be relevant to the thread.

1) The metal skinning of fabric covered aircraft converted for crop spraying/dusting was common as others have suggested. This modification was also undertaken with some Fairchild PT derived agplanes.

2) RCAF Stearman PT-27 did not have canopies. Only the final example, FK108 was fully fitted out to the standard the RCAF requested and records suggest it was not delivered to the customer. The remainder were delivered to almost PT-17 standard, i.e., open cockpit, no blind flying instruments and no cockpit heater. Most PT-27s were actually used at the RAF Elementary Flying Training Schools in Canada and returned to the USA by early 1943.

3) I recall reading somewhere that a few of the Stearman trainers delivered to the U.S. Navy had canopies, but I have never seen that detailed or quantified.

4) The list of PT-18 accidents offered is unlikely to be complete. This is not said with any disrespect to the poster or to the AAIR website from where the list was copied. Almost one third of the one hundred and fifty PT-18s built served at No.1 British Flying Training School at Terrell, Texas, at some stage in their career. For reasons which are not entirely clear to me accidents which occurred to aircraft or personnel at any of the seven B.F.T.S. in the USA were either not reported on the standard USAAF Form 14, or these documents were not preserved. Hence the sources available to AAIR include very few PT, BT or AT, BFTS accidents. I note there is just one Terrell accident in the PT-18 list

Hope this helps, Tony Broadhurst

[Chris Brame]

3) I recall reading somewhere that a few of the Stearman trainers delivered to the U.S. Navy had canopies, but I have never seen that detailed or quantified.

This is another piece to that puzzle, from NAS Glenview circa 1944:

[Dan Jones]

Apparently the PT-27 canopy badly blanketed the rudder, to the extent that when the Boeing test pilot did the first spin tests with the canopy fitted he very nearly left when the airplane wasn't recovering. It did eventually come out of the spin but I believe that the Stearmans that were fitted with canopies operationally (only a small number of Navy airplanes, if memory serves) were placarded against intentional spins.

[Fleet16b]

Original Stearman Canopy for sale here


https://www.facebook.com/groups/antique ... 8005030177

[M-62A]

Fleet16b
I rather think this pic
http://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1024798
shows a Stearman with a Rawdon canopy. I recall seeing it in the flesh several times whilst flown in the UK by Lindsey Walton in the 1980's
Whether this was the type of canopy used on some of the U.S. Navy N2S Stearmans I do not know, but it appears to have a different profile to that fitted to the RCAF PT-27 FK108.

I note the manufacture date of the Rawdon canopy offered for sale is 1948. Rawdon canopies were supplied for after market use on surplus Fairchild and Stearman PTs and they appear to be essentially similar to that used on the 1948 Rawdon T.1 Trainer/agplane

Tony

[Chris Brame]

Fleet16b, thanks for posting the Facebook link - it jogged my memory of an unidentified part that WIXer Forgotten Field has on his site. This looks very much like a top panel from a Rawdon canopy:



I emailed the link to him. Thanks again!