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Boeing PT-13 Stearman Biplane
- Max Speed 186 mph
- Cruising Speed 105 - 125 mph
- Stall Speed 55 mph
- Take-off distance 300 - 900 ft
- Landing distance 600 - 900 ft
- Range 270 - 505 NM
- Rate of Climb 860 - 2000 ft/min
- Service Ceiling 11,200 - 14.000 ft
- Certified for Aerobatic Training
The Stearman is an American biplane formerly used as a military trainer aircraft, of which at least 10,626 were built in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s. Stearman Aircraft became a subsidiary of Boeing in 1934. Widely known as the Stearman, Boeing Stearman, or Kaydet, it served as a primary trainer for the United States Army Air Forces, the United States Navy (as the NS and N2S), and with the Royal Canadian Air Force as the Kaydet throughout World War II.
About half of all US military pilots who fought in WWII received their initial flight training in a Stearman. A further 10,000 RAF and Fleet Air Arm pilots used the Stearman trainer for primary training, at British Flying Training Schools throughout the United States, between 1941 and 1944.
After the conflict was over, thousands of surplus aircraft were sold on the civilian market.
In the immediate postwar years, they became popular as crop dusters and sports planes, and for aerobatic and wing walking use in airshows.
The Stearman was a two-seater biplane used as a military trainer. It featured rugged construction with a large, fixed tailwheel undercarriage, and accommodation for the student and instructor in open cockpits in tandem, with the instructor in the rear cockpit.
The Stearmans had fabric-covered wooden wings, single-leg landing gear and an over-built welded-steel fuselage. It was powered by a single, uncowled radial engine.
One of its advantages for pilot trainees was simplicity: it lacked radio and navigation instruments, had no flaps, and the landing gear did not retract.
Typically, they have an uncowled radial engine. Most airframes have remained the same across all aircraft produced. The major differences between planes have been the engines, ranging from the Lycoming R-680 (225 hp), Continental R-670 (220 hp), and the Jacobs R-755 (225 hp) to the Lycoming R-680 (300 hp), Pratt & Whitney R-985 (450 hp), and the Jacobs R-775 (275 hp).
Most Stearmans have either the Sensenich wooden prop, ground-adjustable McCauley steel blade prop, or the fixed-pitch Hamilton Standard propeller.
The primary differences between aircraft manufactured for the U.S. Army Air Corps and the U.S. Navy were the engine and the tail wheel. While Stearman outfitted Army planes with a fully-steerable tail wheel, they gave Navy planes a full swivel type with a lock. Today, most Stearmans have been modified with a steerable tail.