I
After climbing a narrow walkway and stepping on a soft tandem seat, the double blue and yellow cloth-covered open cabin of the Boeing PT-17 Stearman registered N55171 in Stowe, Massachusetts, I lowered myself to the position using the two upper side edge of the rear edge and fixed olive green loins and shoulder straps. Putting on the era — preliminary glasses and a helmet — I examined the completely duplicated instrument in front of me and prepared myself both for the airborne battle in Massachusetts and for a brief, albeit temporary, return to the initial flights of the First World War.
Boeing PT-17 Stearman originates in an independent project project designed for military purposes. Only beginning to see the flickering light at the end of the tunnel of the Great Depression and haiterto, preserved only by making parts and components for other aircraft, primarily for the twin-engine Boeing B247 airliner, Stearman Aircraft believed that its future could only be secured by military design.
By investing his own funds in 1933, he modified the Cloudboy model 6, the earlier Lloyd Stearman aircraft, presenting a new circular section of the fuselage, similar to that used by the Model 80, another Stearman design providing only the lower ailerons, including the cantilever chassis and the installation of a new tail with adjustable lining on the rear edge of its elevators. Designated model 70, it first flew from Wichita, Kansas, from January 1, 1934, on the basis of a nine-cylinder, 210-horsepower Lycoming R-680 radical engine, proving reliable, reliable and well-suited for rigorous training regiments with the ability to tolerate pilotage maneuvers that often flying pilots are exposed. Although he demonstrated excellent handling characteristics during demonstration flights to the United States Army Air Corps and the United States Navy in Dayton, Anacusia and Pensacola, his almost obedient response to the kiosks proved that he was performing his target task; as a result, the installation of a triangular stall made of wood on its lower wings strongly interfered with the air flow during high angles of attack and eliminated the shortcomings.
In May 1934, the fleet, more interested in these two, ordered 41 aircraft and spare parts for the Wright J5 radial engine with a power of 200 hp. titled "Model 73," but designed the NS-1 for the navy. The first production aircraft was released in December of the same year.
A modified version that includes the new main chassis and, alternatively, equipped with a 225-horsepower Wright R-760 and equivalent Lycoming R-680 9-cylinder radial engine, was designed this summer and targeted for the Air Corps army. It was fully allocated, the army air corps itself issued specifications to Steyrmen Airlines, and as a result, it ordered 20, as well as spare parts for the Lycoming version, designated the X75, but called the PT-13 for the army.
The dual primary training biplane design, identical to both operators, with the exception of some minor functions, included a rectangular welded steel tubular fuselage that was covered with metal panels on the front and fabric at the back end and made a 25-foot — inch total length. Its single-lever, unevenly stretched, stepped upper and lower wings using the wing section of the NACA 2213 were built of spruce laminated spars and ribs. The central part of its upper wing was attributed to steel wire tubular struts, and the stainless steel “N” plate plates were carried along either side of it. Covered with cloth, they achieved movement around their longitudinal axis with dural ailerons mounted on the rear edge of their lower wings, and together they marked a 32.2-foot span and an area of 297.4 square feet.
Fabric, welded steel pipe, wire shank and vertical light have trim tabs on their elevators.
The split cantilever chassis, which includes a metal fairing with torque, a torque-resistant oleo-spring damper on each of its main legs, was equipped with hydraulic wheel brakes and a controlled tail wheel.
A double, tandem, open cockpit accommodated a flight instructor and a student pilot, and the luggage could be stored in a closed compartment behind the back of two.
Powered by a two-bladed, adjustable pitch, metal propeller mounted on a steel pipe, where the radial engine is powered by a central section, a 43 US gallon fuel tank and four US gallon oil tanks installed in the engine compartment itself, weighing 1936 pounds and weighing 2,717 pounds gross, you can climb at a speed of 840 feet per minute, reaching a maximum speed of 124 miles per hour and a maintenance ceiling of 11,200 feet. The range was 505 miles. Cruising speed at 65 percent power setting was 106 miles per hour, and landing speed was an obedient 52 miles per hour.
World War I, both parallels and dictated by the production cycle of the aircraft. The increasing need for instructors was explained in the order of $ 243,578 for 26 PT-13A for the army air corps and about $ 150,373 for 20 naval forces, and the subsequent order of $ 3 million. The United States for PT-13Bs were the highest in the history of Stearman and demanded the expansion of its plant and an increase in its work to a record up to 1000 records.
In addition to the United States, the design even had a foreign application. The 76D1, for example, showed a nine-cylinder, 320-horsepower, two-bladed, adjustable Pratt and Whitney R-985-T1B engine, three 30-caliber machine guns, two-way radio and floats, and ten of them were originally ordered by the Argentine fleet. Model 73L3, equipped with a Lycoming R-680-4 engine with a capacity of 225 hp, was delivered to the Philippines, and the aircraft also saw service in Brazil.
Indeed, by 1940, Steyrman launched one trend of the RT-13 type every 90 minutes, and the impulse once set in motion was unacceptable. On June 25 of the same year, the Navy signed a contract worth $ 3.8 million. US 215-liter engine N2S-2s-5s and 5-liter Lycoming R-680-8, which launched another 40,000 square feet. By August, 1,100 people worked two eight-hour shifts six days a week, and the following month, 1,400 worked around the clock on three daily eight-hour shifts.
Completed aircraft were forwarded either to the Army Air Corps, the base on the Randolph field in Texas, or the navy in Pensacola, Florida.
To avoid production delays due to engine unavailability, Stearman has released two sub-versions. The first of them, the PT-17, showed a shock glider with an engine power of 300 hp, although it was equipped with the seven-cylinder, 220-horsepower Continental R-670-5 radial, and the second, the PT-18, was released from 225 - strong Jacobs R-755. However, only 150 of them were built. Both appeared in the 1940s.
This type reached a major milestone on March 15 of the following year, when the Army Air Corps accepted delivery of the 1000th primary flight simulator in Wichita, the only Stearman project ever to reach such a production cycle. But the millions fed by the war achieved quick success: just five months later, on August 27, the 2000th plane, the PT-17, was delivered to the Army Aviation Corps. These production rates could only be supported by a growing labor force, eclipsing 3,000 in April and 5,000 in June.
In September 1941, the Stearman Aircraft Company, which has since become a division of the Stearman Boeing, eliminated for the first time, eliminated the name Sternman, renamed simply “Boeing Aircraft Company, Wichita Division”.
The basic design also had civilian use in accordance with the approved model certificate No. 743, which was provided on June 6, 1941 for the model A75L3, the equivalent equivalent of 225-hp Lycoming PT-13 and model A75N1, 220-hp Continental R-670. Types previously manufactured on existing military production lines were sold to Parks Air College in Illinois, one of the operators of the civil flight training program, and in Peru, the A75N1.
By December 1941, the glider was completed every 60 - 70 minutes.
Another specialized version of the PT-27 showed a modified Continental engine for arctic temperature operations, a canopy cabin, a tool preparation cabin, an electrical system installation and landing lights. Of the 300 ordered by the Royal Canadian Air Force, 287 were returned between December 1942 and June 1943 due to the inability to fulfill the necessary conditions after delivery, which made them unsuitable for zero-temperature operations.
When the war ended completely in 1945, the Wichita division of Boeing produced 8584 primary flight simulators, or 44 percent of all the flight coaches of the war. However, more than a year after the closure of the production line, he received an order for 24 N2S-4 from the People's Republic of China. Two such aircraft - one with serial number 37902, which was first delivered on October 31, 1942 and earned 1564 hours, and one with serial number 55759, which was first delivered on July 20, 1943 and had 1116 color hours, were located in Clinton, Oklahoma and after overhaul and installation of Lycoming O-435-II six-cylinder engines were sent on May 23, 1947. They later joined the 20,220-strong Continental R-670-4 N2S-3.
In general, Steyrman has released 11 major versions of the main trainer for the army and navy.
II
The PT-17 dashboard in Massachusetts, located under a thin plexiglass windshield, was a directional compass, vertical speed indicator, flight speed indicator (in miles per hour), turn indicator and bank indicator, altimeter, clock, outdoor temperature and pressure gauge and a pressure gauge (in pounds per square inch), a propeller (in revolutions per minute) and a fuel tank supply switch, last for “left”, right ”or“ off. ”The engine and mixture chokes were located on the left side wall, and the steering pedals and tormo for were on the floor, right behind my feet.
An unpainted 220-hp continental radial engine, powered by a 46-gallon fuel tank, and integrated with properly improved throttle and mixture control, filled the glider with an elevator because its spraying, smoking, deflection of traffic jams turned into a horizontal stabilized flush flow, instantly causing the stick between my legs dangle in her very rear position.
Responding to his advanced choke, Stearman switched to the use of a brilliant sun, parallel to the Assabel River, turning right and performing a full engine start, at an angle to the well-groomed, sloping, 2300-foot grass field, which will inevitably serve as its runway. In the end, it was World War II.
Getting under its own power and aligning with the grass field, the PT-17 flows into the wind with fully advanced throttles, raising its tail created with a lift, before turning off its two rotating main wheels at a speed of 60 mph and overcome trees around the perimeter rise, left turn at 550 feet.
The green-carved topography of the blue lakes of Massachusetts, unobstructed in the crystal blue, 80-degree June sky, retreated below me.
Dodging 1200 feet at a clearance speed of 600 feet per minute and 72-mph indicated the speed of the air, the biplane, recording 1800 revolutions per minute on its single propeller, moved across many specularly reflecting lakes, the grass of the Stowe field is now reduced to indistinguishable green carpet.
A deliberate, bright signal to shake the handle with a uniformly programmed pilot behind me, whose presence could be visually checked with a tiny mirror mounted on the underside of the upper wing, indicated the flight gear, and the touch of my helmet confirmed its acceptance.
The stick between my legs, the only means of controlling the lateral (stepping) and longitudinal (rolls) axes of the aircraft, reduced my fate and direction to one channel and, bombarding from all sides with unimpeded wind, I reached a new freedom that was overshadowed by land and descriptions of adjectives.
Supporting the 240-degree, south-west course over Hudson at an air speed of 80 miles per hour, I pointed my nose at the still misty contour of Mount Vachusett, whose silhouette rose above the horizon, now isolated from my world, disconnected from civilization the pilot behind me, in a harmonious, spiritual connection with the universe. Isolated, which has nothing to cling to, whether it is a physical location or a negative emotion, the soul always extremely returns to its autonomous state. If this state could only be permanent ...
Banking remained at the south, 180-degree course over Marlborough, I skirted the Sudbury Reservoir, the upper and lower wings, lifting me to 1,800 feet at a speed of 90 miles per hour, while the engine drank 11-gallon fuel for your thirst.
Left stick pressure pushed the PT-17 onto the east course of Southborough and Framingham to Boston, the engine oil pressure was 75 pounds per square inch.
Most of the military and military training of pilots of the Second World War took place on the Type I aircraft, which was currently flown.
Seeking to fill the enormous need and involve up to 20,000 practical practitioners a year in the student population of the university, President Roosevelt signed a bill to create a Civil Pilot Training Program in December 1938, when pilots already armed with enough hours from school civilians would qualify to complete training at air bases of the Air Force and Navy on PT-13, PT-17 and N2S Stearman airplanes. To correct the program, there were two major flaws associated with the insufficient inclusion in the curriculum of military pilots and the initial obligation to serve in the armed forces immediately after graduation, the Primary School Program, in which the Civil Aviation Authority first conducted an inspection and approved civilian flight schools. Specifically related facilities, complete with civilian flight instructors, who themselves had to attend pilot training courses on the Randolph field, to “ensure uniformity of training in accordance with established methods and standards of the air corps” were provided with curricula, textbooks and Stearman Primary Coaches directly from army. The first such pilots entered the program on June 1, 1939, and were extremely listed 125 scattered throughout 41 schools by December 1941.
However, the infamous Pearl Harbor attack during this month was preceded by an unprecedented build-up of the pilot corps and battle groups. Three months before this event in the fall, the Army Air Corps developed a plan for a simultaneous battle against the German Third Reich and the Japanese Empire, assessing the need for two million soldiers and 88,000 aircraft. Despite the fact that in mid-1940 the Air Corps Training Centers were established in the Randolph Field, Maxwell Field in Alabama and Moffet Field in California, they would have been pitifully inadequate in the event of war, as well as the number of pilots from their . When the war clouds were about to burst at the seams, the urgency of eliminating these flaws could not be underestimated, and the predicted number of required battle groups and pilots increased with the speed of winding the second hand. Two months before Germany attacked Poland, the number of pilots standing in 24 battle groups and 1,200 annual pilots, however, when Germany invaded Norway, these numbers increased to 41 and 7,000 people. Hitler’s invasion of France further exacerbated the need for 54 and 12,000 people and extremely to 84 and 39,000 people.
Another vigilant trembling wand showed that it was time to give up control too early, which I put on another hand signal from the top of the helmet, and the pilot took over, showing some significant maneuvers: choking backwards, he caused a biplane in a vertical dive, green carpet now right in front of the windshield as it accelerated 1,200 feet before being arrested as a result of pushing out the G-force, restoring the return to flight level.
Initiating a spiral left bank, the biplane plunged 500 feet, leveled and buzzed the field, before lifting and turning back to the left again for its final approach. Trying to comb the trees for 400 feet with his elongated main wheels, he climbed the grass with a reduced capacity of 60 miles per hour, biting into a soft surface with his tires, while braking did not allow the rear wheel to move to the ground.
Направляя вправо, PT-17 Stearman применил свои тормоза, и я вылез из талии и плечевых ремней и шлема и защитных очков и поднялся из ямного сиденья с помощью рукоятки крыла, спустился вниз к траве вдоль корневой полосы крыла.
Ожидающий пассажир, к моей зависти, занял мое место в неподвижном биплане, сцена, которая, возможно, напоминает «производственную линию» учеников-пилотов, ожидающих доступность PT-17 для их следующих уроков в 1940-х годах. Самолет, как первое звено в цепи победы, обеспечил жизненно важную подготовку пилотам, которые подверглись переходу на более крупные, более мощные и тяжело вооруженные истребители и бомбардировщики, с которыми они чрезвычайно победили на войне. Первоначальный, а иногда и наименьший аспект любой операции часто оказывается наиболее важным.
Возвращаясь к моей машине среди жары, я подумал об этой философии ...
