Boeing PT-17 Kaydet (N55355)

I had three friends, veterans of PT-17 training, all gone now R.I.P., that unanimously said that this was the true paint scheme of the Kaydet trainer. One story had it that they crashed and/or were relocated so often, that sometimes the ID numbers were just "silvered" over and new marking painted on. Only the "parade ready" aircraft had the now popular yellow paint. There was a war going on (it was in all the papers), no time for fancy paint!

My father, Gene Waite, started out in 1942 as a Navy cadet at Olathe, KS NAS flying NP1s. He transitioned to a flight instructor. Later, he flew about every a/c the Navy had, finally flying PBYs and PBMs. He always said that the Stearman was built so tough that you could fly it into a brick wall and survive.

beautiful bird