Its simple, rugged construction, fabric-covered wooden wings, single-leg landing gear and an over-built welded-steel fuselage made it ideal as a trainer for novice pilots.  Most were built with 220-hp., 7-cylinder, Continental radial engines, but many had Lycoming and a few got the Jacobs.

  The Navy designation was N2S2 through N2S5.  The Army Air Corps used PT-13, PT-17, and PT-18.  Overwhelmingly they were primary trainers, but some were fitted for night flight and instrument training. 

 The Army ordered the first Stearman’s in 1936, and the Navy had the last ones in service, which were retired in 1948.  Stearman’s never received much public attention during the war – after all, nobody bragged about a mere trainer.   Cadets had to fly them before moving on to fighters and bombers.  The Stearman was the airplane they left behind. 

 After the war the slow, heavy biplane turned into an agricultural star.  Crop dusters installed hoppers in the forward cockpit, added high-lift wings and replaced the engines with 450-hp Pratt & Whitney’s.  Strong and sturdy enough to save many cadets during their pilot training, Stearman’s protected even more agricultural pilots who flew them mercilessly.   In their low-level, high-risk environment many agricultural pilots crashed their Stearman’s, but these pilots almost always walked away.  Pilots often hurt Stearman’s, but Stearman’s rarely injure pilots or passengers.  In the ‘60s the Stearman was again outdated, this time, by the more modern AG-Cats to do the crop dusting. 

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