Name that plane
Felipe’s uncle, Luis Alvarez Vélez, was standing next to a Stearman Kaydet, also known as the Stearman 75 and later built by Boeing. American World War II pilots knew it as the PT-17 (U.S. Navy N2S) trainer. More than 10,000 were built
Carl Yackel, an
FSM reader from Bend, Oregon, copiloted B-24 Liberators and remembered the PT-17 well from his training days. “Our flight instructor told us if we ever got in trouble, just let go of it,” Carl said. “He said, ‘This thing knows how to fly better than any of you guys will ever learn.’”
Stationed in Florida, Carl liked to swoop down on the
Orange Blossom Special express train, “fresh out of Miami and headed for New York,” he recalls. He had to dive to pick up enough speed to run alongside the locomotive — the Stearman topped out at about 96 mph. The engineer would smile and wave as the train pulled away, Carl recalls, “probably doing about 110.”