Photo Essay:The Blakesburg Fly-In

Antique airplanes—the cream of the crop—fluttered around corn country to celebrate an air mail birthday.

  • By airspacemag.com
  • AirSpaceMag.com, November 18, 2008
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Caroline Sheen


1927 Stearman C3B
Livery: Mamer Air Transport
Tail number NC3440

Larry Tobin, of Spokane, Washington, is rebuilding the oldest airworthy Stearman. Brent Taylor of the Antique Airplane Association says, “I remember as a 6-year-old kid this Stearman coming to our fly-in when it was held at Ottumwa. At the time it was powered by a Hisso engine—the same engine as in Frank Schelling’s Jenny—making it a Stearman C3D. Years later it showed up at fly-ins around Spokane in National Parks Airways markings and powered by a 220-horsepower Continental and licensed as a Stearman C3B.” It flew the mail from Blakesburg to Ottumwa and back on August 29 and 30.


| 11 of 16 |



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Comments (1)

I remember seeing the two Sikorsky flying boats owned by
Martin and Osa Johnson at the Chanute Airport about 1933 or 1934. We lived in Chanute, Kansas at the time, and took
photographs of both planes (unfortunately, none of the photos exist today).

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