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were forthcoming, chiefly because there was no funding available to buy the Army new airplanes.
Early in 1935, however, the Air Corps issued a specification and asked the Stearman company to prepare a bid, which was presented to the service in April and resulted in a contract for 20 airplanes to be designated PT-13A, powered by the R-680-5 engine. These orders from the U.S. War Department were part of an expansion program by the Army to increase the strength of its air fleet to more than 2,300 airplanes from a total of 1,800 as of early 1935.
Fortunately that year Congress had appropriated $23 million for new armaments that included trainers, fighters, transports and
bombers. Captains of the nation’s air power, however, knew that these appropriations fell woefully short of what the Army and Navy needed to train the next generation of air warriors to fight in a potentially global conflict. As the Eagle newspaper pointed out, soon after news of the Air Corps’ order “Despite the unexpected increase of nearly 500 aircraft this year, War department officials see little hope of materially increasing the Air Corps’ strength until larger appropriations are made or funds allotted from other sources.”
The Stearman factory, however, was bursting at the seams with orders for new biplanes that totaled $450,000. Not since the halcyon days of the late 1920s had the company experienced such a high level of activity. By the end of 1936
there were 400 men and women on the payroll working long, hard hours to build another 50 PT-13A trainers. In October the Air Corps contracted for another 30 of the biplanes, and before the end of the year export orders were received from Argentina and the Philippine Constabulary.
As the Great Depression slowly receded and military appropriations increased, Wichita’s airframe manufacturers were struggling to keep pace with demand for their airplanes. At the end of 1936 the Beech Aircraft Corporation, Cessna Aircraft Company and the Stearman Aircraft Company had more than doubled their business by comparison with 1935, and 1937 promised to deliver hundreds of more orders for military aircraft. Per the Eagle newspaper, it was estimated that ... “perhaps $2,500,000-worth
During the mid-to-late 1930s the Army Air Corps’ Randolph Field in Texas operated a large number of PT-13 and PT-13A biplanes. It was the first stop for cadets eager to earn their wings.
(Archives of the Wichita Area Chamber of Commerce)
34 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
FEBRUARY 2020