Stearman
The Boeing-Stearman PT-17 Kaydet — the open-cockpit biplane trainer that taught half a million Allied pilots to fly during WWII — captured as a sport-scale RC model.
About
The Boeing-Stearman Model 75 — known variously as the PT-13 (Lycoming-engined), PT-17 (Continental R-670), N2S (Navy variant), and "Kaydet" — is one of the most-produced biplane trainers ever built. The original Stearman Aircraft Company designed the Model 75 in 1934, and after Boeing acquired Stearman in 1939, the type entered mass production at Boeing's Wichita, Kansas plant for U.S. Army Air Corps and U.S. Navy primary training. Approximately 10,626 PT-17/N2S airframes were built between 1934 and 1945.
The Stearman taught a whole generation of Allied pilots how to fly. After WWII, surplus Stearmans flooded the civilian market, and many ended up as crop-dusters in agricultural service, where the type's strong airframe, low stall speed, and robust radial engine made it ideally suited to spraying work. Surviving PT-17s and N2Ss continue to fly today as warbird-show favorites.
The unmistakable Stearman silhouette — open-cockpit biplane, big round radial up front, conventional landing gear — is one of the most-modeled American biplane subjects in modern RC scale flying.
In the simulator
A satisfying golden-age biplane scale subject. Slow, stable, with characteristic biplane low-speed authority. A natural sibling of the Stearman 5 Cyl (CV Planes Pack 6) and Stearman Floats variant in this same pack.
