Page 27 - Volume 13 Number 2

“I had the pleasure of making the first official passenger-carrying flight in the first airplane built by Stearman Aircraft, Inc., using the plane to make the delivery of the March issue of Aero Digest on the airfields of Southern California. We loaded the magazines in the front cockpit and took off from Clover Field. I was greatly surprised with the smooth takeoff until I remembered that the plane was equipped with the new hydraulic landing gear. Before I realized it, we were in the air and climbing fast, crossing the Santa Monica Mountains at a height of 2,500 feet and landing at Kinner Field, Glendale, in less than 15 minutes. The field is short and rough in places but the oleo shock absorbers made the landing with perfect smoothness. Taxiing up to the Kinner factory the wheel brakes showed their efficiency, with Fred Hoyt turning the plane around in very little more than the length of the plane.
The second airplane built in California was the Stearman Sport Commercial Model C2. It was almost identical to the C1 except for relocation of the water radiator between the landing gear struts, and push-pull rods and torque tubes to actuate the ailerons. Note the name “Stearman Aircraft” on the hangar of the Lyle-Hoyt Aircraft Corporation.
(Walter J. Innes Collection, Wichita State University Libraries and Archives, Department of Special Collections)
JANUARY 2019
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 25
The Stearman C1 appeared in a number of advertisements published in 1927 that underscored Lloyd Stearman’s pen- chant for advanced design without sacrificing performance. The aircraft further reinforced Stearman’s growing reputation
within the aviation industry as a talented designer. (Edward H. Phillips Collection)