Learn to Fly

Boeing Stearman PT-17This lovely Boeing Stearman PT-17 biplane is the work of mrutek on Flickr, and it’s our second song-titled creation of the day. The PT-17 was designed as a training aircraft for the US military in the 1930s and ’40s, with over 8,000 produced during the period. It’s therefore perhaps a bit of an unsung hero of the Second World War, as it was the tool of choice for training pilots who would later take to the skies to defend the Allies in far more war-like machinery.

Following the war the large surplus of PT-17s were sold to the civilian market, to be used as crop dusters, leisure aircraft, and in aerobatics display teams. As such, unlike many aircraft from the annals of history, many PT-17s survive and are in use today. Perhaps the little biplane, in a roundabout way, has received the recognition it deserved after all.

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