Vintage aircraft Stearman to bring smiles to Bridgeport airport Sept. 8

MARTINSBURG, W. Va. — Take the motorcycle experience, but make it better. Add wings, several hundred feet and a beautiful West Virginia sunset complete with short sleeve temperatures and that is the start of the Stearman experience.

"We get nothing but Stearman smiles," Lee Fox, member of the Capital Wing of the Commemorative Air Force and owner of a PT-17 Stearman, said. "I mean, you got that one right now, I can see it on your face. It's the coolest thing in the world you will ever do. I defy you to try to describe it to somebody. It needs to be experienced."

What Fox described is a ride in his vintage WWII era pilot trainer, a PT-17 Stearman. As a member of the Capital Wing of the Commemorative Air Force, Fox provides his aircraft to the CAF to give rides to members of the public during airshows. Fox also provides rides to thrill seekers outside of his role at the CAF at Stafford Regional Airport in Virginia.

The Stearman were among the aircraft on display at the Martinsburg Airshow on Saturday. The Capital Wing will be bringing a PT-17 Stearman to Bridgeport on Sept. 8.

Fox has owned his Stearman for 5 years. He flew airlines for 40 years until his retirement. After toying around with what he called computer stuff, Fox returned to flying after purchasing the Stearman.

The Stearman itself has its own long legacy in flight. Around 10,000 were made in the 1930s and 1940s. The aircraft was a primary flight trainer — pilots who graduated to combat aviation went on to fly to the T-6 Texan — which also made an appearance at the Martinsburg Air Show. However, regardless of what aircraft pilots flew in the war, they all started on the Stearman.

While the pride of the U.S. Air Force, an F-22 Raptor, flew overhead, Maj. Richard "Ike" McCann sat next to the Stearman, waiting for the air traffic to clear so he could take the plane into the air. McCann is an Air Force pilot and has flown everything from combat missions to search and rescue. Although he is a helicopter pilot by trade, he volunteers on the weekends to help fly and maintain these vintage aircraft.

McCann has his own vintage plane he flies for the CAF. On a day with challenging weather, McCann impressed Fox with how he handled the winds that day. Fox needed extra help flying rides in the Stearman, and invited McCann to help out.

"We don't fly that high, not like an airliner thousands of feet in the air," McCann said. "So you really see everything on the ground. You really can feel it with the cockpit being open, you feel the wind on your face, you kind of smell the smell of the engine exhaust and that kind of thing. And it's just magical, you really do kind of lose the sense that you're in a machine at points and it just kind of feels like you're flying on your own."

Sadly, it was McCann's last flight on Saturday. As is the case with the military, duty calls and the Air Force is moving him to another post away from the Stearman. However, McCann hopes he can return to the plane someday.

Maintaining these vintage planes isn't cheap. These aircraft are 80 years or older, and finding parts isn't as simple as walking down to the local parts store, according Peter Ballard, ride coordinator for the CAF. In many cases, new parts even need to be machined, since stocks no longer exist.

The propellor on the Stearman can cost up to $30,000, easily the cost of a new car. That's why providing rides is important to the CAF as well. Besides honoring the historical memory, it also preserves the physical planes themselves.

However, it's all worth it to Ballard, McCann, Fox, and anyone who flies on these magnificent flying machines, either as a passenger or a pilot.

"We think it's important because the public today, most of them have no recollection of World War Two," Ballard said. "What these planes really look like, what they sounded like, and if they get up to them and are allowed to touch them, what they feel like, for example. This Stearman we're standing in front of has fabric wings, and fabric fuselage. And they can't relate to that because airliners today are all metal."

Ballard will bring Stearman smiles to Bridgeport on Sept. 8. There really is nothing like flying through the air in an open cockpit on a warm day.

"I fly about 200 rides a year," Fox said. "Taking people up and I've not had one person who's not smiled at the end or say that was the coolest thing I've ever done in my life."

Reach Esteban at [email protected]

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