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Stearman Biplane

Get to Know the Airplane
Manufacturer: Stearman Aircraft Division, Boeing Airplane Co., Wichita, KS
Model Design: A75N1
Model Design: PT-17
Customer: US Army
Serial Number: 41-8305
Construction Number: 75-1864
Contract Number: W535 AC-15923
Sales Order Number: 3053
Quantity of Airplanes Built on this Order: 1144
Boeing's Deliver Cost: $6,591.00
Engine Manufacturer: Continental
Engine Spec Number: 95-28092
Model Number: R-670-5 220 H.P @ 2075 RPM

26 July 1941 US Army PT-17, s/n 41-8305, is accepted by and delivered to the US Army at the Stearman Aircraft Division, Boeing Airplane Company, Wichita, KS and is assigned to Maxwell Field, Montgomery, AL.
Maxwell Field was the Headquarters of the Eastern Flying Training Command and served as the storage and dispersal point of airplanes being assigned to the Eastern Flying Training Command.
28 July 1941 Airplane arrives at Maxwell Field, Montgomery, AL
21 October 1941 Airplane is assigned to a CPS (Contract Pilot School), Helena Aero Tech, 2161st Base Unit, Trainer Field, Rudolph A. VanDevere, operator, West Helena, Arkansas.
12 Sept 1942 Airplane is assigned to a CPS , the Hawthorne School of Aeronautics, 2162nd Base Unit, Beverly E. Bevo Howard, operator, Orangeburg, South Carolina.
At the time of this assignment, this airplane had a total of 994.6 flying hours since first being commissioned.
7 March 1943 Airplane is assigned to a CPS, the Coast Aviation Corporation, 2359th Base Unit, Eagle Field, Harry S. White and Alexis L. Ehrman, Jr,. operators, Dos Palos, California.
At the time of this assignment, this airplane had a total of 1148.7 flying hours since first being commissioned.
31 July 1945 US Army PT-17, s/n 41-8305 is STRICKEN from US Army records at Eagle Field, Dos Palos, California, and is turned over to the RFC (Reconstruction Finance Corporation.)

AT-6 Texan

T-6 History: First Flight-1940

The T-6 Texan two-place advanced trainer was the classroom for most of the Allied pilots who flew in World War II. Called the SNJ by the Navy and the Harvard by the RAF, the T-6 was designed as a transition trainer between basic trainers and first-line tactical aircraft.

In all, the T-6 trained several hundred thousand pilots in 34 different countries. A total of 15,495 of the planes were made. Though most famous as a trainer, the T-6 Texan also won honors in World War II and in the early days of the Korean War.

The Texan was an evolution of the company's BC-1 basic combat trainer, which was first produced for the U.S. Army Air Corps with fixed landing gear in 1937 under a contract that called for 174 planes. It was designed by North American Aviation as a low-cost trainer with all the characteristics of a high-speed fighter. Although not as fast as a fighter, it was easy to maintain and repair, had more maneuverability and was easier to handle. A pilot's airplane, it could roll, Immelmann, loop, spin, snap, and vertical roll. It was designed to give the best possible training in all types of tactics, from ground strafing to bombardment and aerial dogfighting, and contained such versatile equipment as bomb racks, blind flying instrumentation, gun and standard cameras, fixed and flexible guns, and just about every other device that military pilots had to operate.