Just The News: Organizers call it the largest barnstorming event in history. Military and airline pilots in their spare time have banded together to honor living members of the Greatest Generation, by giving them free rides aboard restored, open-cockpit Stearman biplanes.
19 Comments on Group honors World War II veterans with free rides aboard iconic Stearman biplanes
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Thanks MJA
I just sent this to my cousin. My uncle(his father)served in the Navy during WWII. I bet he would be thrilled to take a ride.
My dad built and airplane from scratch in our garage while I was growing up. He painted it in the old army air corp colors of Bahama blue and lemon yellow.
I flew in a stearman once, we did hammerheads, loops, rolls, and spins. I’m glad these gentlemen are getting up in them, it’s the ultimate thrill at any age. A little trivia, these planes are built to withstand up to 13 Gs. Of course you’d pass out long before doing such thing, but they needed to be rock solid as trainer planes. At least that’s what I was told.
I have a buddy that owns a 1939 Stearman. He is and was buddies with several WWII pilots. I forwarded this story to him. It will have special meaning to him. Thanks.
@Walpurgis
Bahama blue and lemon yellow makes me feel happy.
Kudos to your old man.
A biplane seems more appropriate to honor WW1 vets.
Why isn’t anyone offering them free airplane rides?
Oh, wait —
Viet Vet: I’m sure a few of them voted last month.
Vietvet – my maternal grandfather would have been 122 this year. And he was an Army veteran pre-WWI.
(I never thought I’d ever write a sentence like that.)
Going up in a biplane is on the ‘bucket list’.
Being a ‘Barnstormer’ has always been in my blood…
It also reminded me of Snoopy and the Red Baron, more to WWI to @Vietvet’s point:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNremK0cBEg
Same for me @Jimmy, I think to the exact year…they both would have been about 19-20 years old in 1917 which makes sense! Fucking howitzer fodder…glad ours made it back…
Grandpa had a DH Tiger moth.
I grew up very close to rice fields and back then, all of the crop dusters were Stearman bi-planes. After making passes over the fields, they would do their turns over our house. Man, the sound those engines made early in the morning was simply awesome. The whole house would vibrate. Good times!
Whoa. Math error – brain freeze – senior moment, ghost. 132 this year. He was born in 1888. And he was a football halfback and drop kicker and sprinter in college (in Michigan!). 10 flat. My best ever was 10.4 as a junior in H.S.
(Christmas time does this to me.)
We seem to have the same affinities here.
@ecp The guy who designed the plane my father built took me for a ride over Newport RI and did some hammerheads. My father was so jealous.
Stearman rides are a heckuva lot more fun nekkid.
(Says my Mom)
Everyday that I’m out hunting in Culpeper County, a Stearman from the near-by Flying Circus takes folks up for thrill rides right over my treestand. Yesterday I learned from a friend that his 93 year old dad, a retired WW2 & Korean war pilot/instructor had just recently taken aloft in that craft to do some stalls and rolls. While he has over 2 thousand hours in Texans, of which they have one at the FC, because of his age they wouldn’t let him stunt with the Texan.
93 years old and still flying. I just shook my head. Plus I don’t bitch about the noise of that low flying biplane anymore, now that I realize the service that man provides to my old friend, Bill and many others.
Rhinebeck Aerodrome, Kingston, NEW YORK, a plane from 1910 called a Hanriot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQYPZcpE9Z4
Got to get there, always wanted to and this thread WILL make it so…only about a hour and a half away…
@Jimmy: My father would have been 120 this August (I was a late-in-life baby). And his granddaughter turned 30 this year. She was a late-in-life baby too.
🙂
@ Ghost: I always wanted to go to Rhinebeck when we still lived back in that country but I never made it happen. Go while you can! And please send me some pics.