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OX-5 engine, of which thousands were available at bargain prices after the end of World War I.
Lloyd was born in Wellsford, Kansas, on Oct. 26, 1898, to Frederick C. and Icie May (Grimm) Stearman. The eldest of four children, he worked with his father in the construction business based in Harper, Kansas, along with his younger brothers, Waverly and Ivan. Drawing plans and erecting commercial and residential structures taught Lloyd the elementary and practical applications of construction. In addition, he became familiar with the many types of wood and how they could be employed most effectively in the construction process.
At age 13 he had set up an elec- trical laboratory in the attic of the family home, and during his high school years Lloyd designed and built a welding machine as well as a small number of elementary electric motors and transformers. Blessed with a seemingly insatiable appetite for knowledge, he later established a photography studio in a local ice cream parlor and turned a profit until he graduated in 1916.
Lloyd’s next step was to follow in his father’s footsteps and pursue a degree in civil engineering from Kansas State Agricultural College located in the town of Manhattan. He began his freshman year in September 1917, only five months after America’s entry into the Great War that was devastating the European continent.
Not content to stay on the sidelines when the flower of American youth were fighting in the trenches, in August 1918 Lloyd enlisted in the United States Navy and eventually was transferred to Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California, where he completed training as a Master Airplane Rigger. Stearman’s greatest desire, however, was to fly and he did begin flight training in a Curtiss N-9 floatplane and may
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have soloed before the Armistice signed in November 1918, clipped his wings.
It is interesting to note that when the United States began fighting alongside the Allies, it lacked an air force capable of challenging the enemy in the skies above France and Belgium. So, it was with great enthusiasm and high expectations that Congress appropriated the staggering sum of $640 million for the production of military airplanes. The ambitious plan called for building 22,625 aircraft and 44,000 aero engines as well as manufacturing sufficient spare parts to construct thousands of additional warplanes. In addition, the federal government assigned 27,000 men as inspectors saddled with the responsibility of guaranteeing the quality of spruce wood and ensuring that the lumber mills and suppliers were providing the massive quantities required to assemble a fighting air fleet.
After Lloyd was discharged from the Navy late in 1918, he returned to his hometown of Harper and opened an electrical shop, but the venture was short-lived. Undaunted, Stearman accepted a position as a journeyman architect with the S.S. Voight Company in Wichita. He had worked there about one year when, sometime in 1919, his eyes were drawn to an advertisement in the local paper for men interested in fashioning wood and metal into flying machines.
The notice was placed by E.M. Laird, who at that time was preparing to start limited production of the Laird Tractor biplane. Confident that his education in college, coupled with the technical and flight training he received in the Navy qualified him to apply, Lloyd was hired as a draftsman, junior engineer and airplane and engine mechanic and shop foreman. A few months later Lloyd was supervising construction of the biplane’s wood fuselage and wings.
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