Stearman Patrol

A BUCKET - LIST FLIGHT IN A TIMELESS CLASSIC

- Sam Weigel

My infatuation with Stearmans began at 7 years old, when, while piled into the back of our Oldsmobile Cutlass station wagon on a family road trip to Florida, I spied a barnstormer in a brilliant blue-and-yellow airplane plying his trade from a nearby airstrip. I pleaded for my parents to let me take a ride, and they actually discussed it, but decided the cost was well outside our tight vacation budget.

Soon tin models of all four Red Baron Pizza team Stearmans adorned my bedroom, and a poster as well. There’s just something about that airplane that looks exactly like a classic biplane should, in ways that other iconic examples, such as the Camel, Jenny and Tiger Moth, do not. You start with the tall stance, nose pointing expectantly to the sky; add the beefy, muscular airframe straining against the taut fabric that envelops it; mix in a big old uncowled radial engine swinging a giant polished prop; and tie it all together with a symmetric web of struts, braces and drag wires. It looks like an airplane built to take you to hell and back, just in case you ever get tired of lolling over golden cornfields in the sunset hour. It happens to be my wife’s very favorite airplane, so Dawn and I inevitably end up seeking out Stearmans at airshows and fly-ins.