Boeing (Stearman) E75/PT-13D “Kaydet”

Lyon Air Museum’s Stearman is a PT-13D.  It was made available to the USAAF on October 4, 1944 and was first assigned to the 2533^rd Base Unit (Air Training Command) at Goodfellow Field, Texas.  It remained at Goodfellow until May of 1947, when it was transferred to the 2532^nd Base Unit (Air Training Command) at Randolph Field, Texas, and soon back to the 2533^rd from December of 1947 to February of 1948.  Next, it was reassigned to the Civil Air Patrol in Bryan, Texas, where it was used in an “instructional project.”  In July of 1949, 42-17698 was dropped from the USAF inventory, having accumulated a total of 984 hours of flight time.  Sold into civilian ownership and not flown for over 50 years (40 of which were spent stored in a barn while under the ownership of a Flying Tigers Airline pilot), 42-17698 finally took its first flight in civilian hands in 2002, after an extensive 13-year restoration.