Boeing Stearman PT-17 "Kaydet"
Primary Military Trainer

The Stearman model 75 "Kaydet" can trace its design and heritage back to Lloyd C. Stearman, founder of the Stearman Aircraft Co., at Venice, California, in 1926. The Stearman Company was moved to Wichita, Kansas in 1927 and subsequently became part of the larger Boeing Aircraft company.

The first model 75, the X75 prototype, was test flown in Septemmber 1934. By February 1945, the Stearman Aircraft Co.., had built over eight thousand Kaydet airplanes in Wichita for the U.S. Army Air Corps
(PT-17) and U.S. Navy (N2S) to use as primary military trainers. During this 11-year span, more American military pilots learned to fly in the Stearman model 75 primary trainer than any other airplane.

Under the U.S. Government's lend-lease program, the model 75's were also built and loaned for pilot training to the countries of Brazil, Venezuela, Philippines, Peru, Cuba, Bolivia, Paraguay, Columbia, China, Guatelmala, the Dominican Republic, and Canada.

This particular aircraft (serial #75-2743) was sold surplus from the military in 1945 to a mississippi crop dusting company for spraying crops such as cotton. It was retired from use in 1968 and completely rebuilt in 1990 by a new owner in Texas. The aircraft was refurbished and restored in 1997 to its current condition.

This Stearman PT-17 is painted in the traditional prewar Navy paint scheme with red bands to signify it as an instrument trainer. The Navy pilots nicknamed these aircraft the "Yellow Peril" because of their color and the often inexperienced pilots at the controls.

Photos of our 1941
Boeing Stearman aircraft