My memories of flying during the depression years are linked to Stearman NC-2143, a special, one-of-a-kind airplane. We first met at the 1932 Detroit Air Show where she was a numberless Boeing Stearman exhibit. She had no engine, propeller or fabric covering. Though she was a mere skeleton of tubes, wires, ribs and spars, everything visible was chromed, varnished, and otherwise gussied-up to show what a fine job the company did with the part of an airplanes anatomy that was normally covered.
Earl Schaeffer, president of Stearman, Boeing division, introduced us. Her name was Model 6-C and she was the civil version of the Army's new trainer the PT-9. She was powered by a 165 hp Wright R-540 engine. I was impressed with everything I saw, but wondered out loud if she would have much pep with so little power. Earl laughed. "She's built to military standards," he said. "And can handle any power you fit her with."
Stearman's chief engineer, Mac Short confirmed that. I would have no trouble getting her licensed with double the power she was designed for - he was keen to see how she would fly with a 300 hp Wright J-6 anyway. This convinced me to purchase her.
It took a while to line up an engine and to haggle Earl down to a price I could afford. We finally agreed on $1,500 for the plane F.O.B. Boston, to be shipped May 19, 1933. Included in the price were engineering data
for J-6 300 installation, additional fuel tank, increased oil tank installation, J-6 300 engine mount and paperwork for Department of Commerce approval.
Two months after the Stearman was delivered to Boston, we completed her assembly. On July 31, I test-hopped the result. She was a dream to fly. On August 4, the Aeronautics Branch, U.S. Department of Commerce approved her license.
Some years later, Stearman 2143 gained even more power.
In the soggy spring of 1936, Frank Hawks, Texaco's record-setting
promotional pilot hit a stone wall while taking off from a small grass
field in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was flying the company's Travel Air Mystery S, "Texaco
No 13". The plane was washed out, and Frank's face was badly messed up.
Massachusetts General Hospital got Frank's face repair job. Texaco gave us the job of putting the plane together for permanent display in the Smithsonian Institution. When we sorted out the pieces, we saw that the Mystery S's custom built 420 hp Wright R-975C engine appeared to have only superficial damage. From the outside, it looked exactly the same as my 300 horsepower R-975. When the folks at Stearman confirmed that 2143 could handle the extra horsepower, and Wright said the engine's dimensions and weight were the same as the J6, I made a deal with Texaco to swap. For safety's sake, we overhauled the R-975C before installing it into 2143. After inspection and a flight test, I had the most unique Stearman in the world, powered by a unique engine. (I wonder if the Smithsonian knows that their Texaco Mystery S has the wrong engine in it!)
Every morning I would get into my Stearman kept at a landing strip at my home and commute to my office in East Boston. One late fall day, as I started the engine, the big Wright backfired with a loud bang. The cover glass blew out of the manifold pressure gauge, and flaming gas sprayed onto the cockpit fabric which caught fire.
There was a Pyrene fire extinguisher aboard- standard military equipment at that time, which I seized. I doused the flames and had almost put them out when I was overcome with choking fumes. I couldn't breath. I had to get out of that cockpit and before I got my breath back the fire was out of control. My faithful, unique Stearman went up in smoke. That Stearman was special to me and had served me well getting me in and out of countless difficult places. Losing her this way made me feel as if I had been unfaithful to an old friend.
But the Stearman did not die entirely in vain. In fact, my experience with the Pyrene fire extinguisher helped to get the dangerous substance removed from the cockpits of military planes. When I told Jerry Lederer head of Flight Safety Foundation about the fumes that nearly suffocated me, he told me that when Pyrene gets hot it breaks down into highly toxic chlorine gas. Pyrene was soon replaced by mono-ammonium phosphate, a safer dry chemical used to douse fires in power boat engines. Even in her final hours, my Stearman made an important contribution to aviation safety.
Crocker Snow's Model 6 Stearman is a project waiting to be rebuilt by Rob Lock, Waldo Wrights Flying Service.
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