Page 35 - Volume 13 Number 5

14,000 new airplanes. In addition to the Stearman order, Beech Aircraft was handed contracts for military versions of the Model D17S and twin-engine Model C18, and Cessna Aircraft had orders to build hundreds of AT-8 multi-engine trainers. As a result of all that activity, as of September 1940, Wichita’s three major aircraft builders were scrambling to manufacture $40 million-worth of “warbirds.”3
From 1939 to 1941 the Stearman Division had received orders from the Army Air Corps for 275 PT-13A trainers, followed by 255 PT-13B and PT-13C (operated as instrument flight trainers), as well as 250 N2S-1 aircraft ordered by the U.S. Navy. As the fateful year 1941 dawned, Julius Schaefer and his growing army of workers were rolling out a new Model 74 every 90 minutes or as many as 12 per day. Army and Navy pilots were ferrying up to 10 new airplanes at a time to training fields that were popping up all across the United States.
By July 1941, more than 12,000 people in Wichita were engaged in the manufacture or support of warplane production for the United States, Great Britain and its empire. As 1941 drew to a close, however, it had become apparent to a majority of Americans that the war raging in Europe, coupled with Japanese aggression in China and its military buildup in the Western Pacific Ocean, would eventually draw the United States into another
bloody, global conflict. KA
Notes:
1 Wichita Eagle, Dec. 27, 1936, Page 5.
2 While Poland was fighting desperately for its survival, thousands
of miles to the west the Stearman Division was busy completing orders for the Air Corps and Navy and the Brazilian government. The latter had placed orders for $300,000-worth of Model A76B3 aircraft destined for Cuba, and the Philippine government contracted for 18 Model 76D3 biplanes that cost $355,000.
3 As the number and size of aircraft production facilities grew in Wichita, so did demand for workers. A survey of aviation companies operating in the city found that, as of October 1940, there were 3,782 people employed by the three major manufacturers. Future estimates put the number of workers at more than 8,000 by January 1941. That month the Stearman factory would undergo a massive increase in employment to more than 4,000 men and women, increasing to 6,500 in June.
Ed Phillips, now retired and living in the South, has researched and written eight books on the unique and rich aviation history that belongs to Wichita, Kan. His writings have focused on the evolution of the airplanes, companies and people that have made Wichita the “Air Capital of the World” for more than 80 years.
MAY 2019 KING AIR MAGAZINE • 33