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Wings of Stearman: The Story of Lloyd Stearman and the Classic Stearman Biplanes
150 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 14, 2017
Four stars for aviation history buffs, two for nearly all others.
Long before this book was published there was a predecessor by Mitch Mayborn. At revision time Mayborn got Bowers' assistance in fleshing out the Stearman story. After Mayborn's death Bowers did a thorough rewrite and expansion of the book such that all Mayborn's prior work was eclipsed and Bowers is the sole author. Much of the information and many photos are drawn from the Bowers collection which he gathered over a lifetime and catalogued. Bowers' understanding of the history of flight was among the most nearly comprehensive in the U.S.A. if not in the world.
Lloyd C. Stearman is in the pantheon of aviation. He had a hand in much of what made flying practical in the first half of the 20th century. This volume tips the hat to the man but focuses on the aircraft he and his companies built under the Stearman name. Bowers makes eminently clear that history is messy and often confusing. e.g. A given airframe may have been built as one model, licensed as another, restored to original or modified again as yet another variant. He has made a yeoman effort to get the story straight but still there may be gaps and errors. All (at the time of writing) known prototype and production models and variants are included here.
As with so many books of this kind, the production of the inside pales vs. the cover. Photo reproduction is always a weakness when dealing with old photography because image processing is costly. Still, I feel that many of the photos truly needed processing for clarity and without it they could have been omitted and the book would have been no worse for their omission. The usual want of a strong editor is felt. Bowers did a lot of writing in his life but the transition from columns to books necessarily changes the way things should be done.
Production and editing gripes aside, this is an indispensible book to those with an interest in aviation development in the twentieth century.
Long before this book was published there was a predecessor by Mitch Mayborn. At revision time Mayborn got Bowers' assistance in fleshing out the Stearman story. After Mayborn's death Bowers did a thorough rewrite and expansion of the book such that all Mayborn's prior work was eclipsed and Bowers is the sole author. Much of the information and many photos are drawn from the Bowers collection which he gathered over a lifetime and catalogued. Bowers' understanding of the history of flight was among the most nearly comprehensive in the U.S.A. if not in the world.
Lloyd C. Stearman is in the pantheon of aviation. He had a hand in much of what made flying practical in the first half of the 20th century. This volume tips the hat to the man but focuses on the aircraft he and his companies built under the Stearman name. Bowers makes eminently clear that history is messy and often confusing. e.g. A given airframe may have been built as one model, licensed as another, restored to original or modified again as yet another variant. He has made a yeoman effort to get the story straight but still there may be gaps and errors. All (at the time of writing) known prototype and production models and variants are included here.
As with so many books of this kind, the production of the inside pales vs. the cover. Photo reproduction is always a weakness when dealing with old photography because image processing is costly. Still, I feel that many of the photos truly needed processing for clarity and without it they could have been omitted and the book would have been no worse for their omission. The usual want of a strong editor is felt. Bowers did a lot of writing in his life but the transition from columns to books necessarily changes the way things should be done.
Production and editing gripes aside, this is an indispensible book to those with an interest in aviation development in the twentieth century.
December 13, 2007
I most certainly remember these
To start them you had to crank up an inertia starter.
You cranked it faster and faster until you had it going as fast as you could then the pilot tried to get the engine going with the momentum of that whirling flywheel.
To start them you had to crank up an inertia starter.
You cranked it faster and faster until you had it going as fast as you could then the pilot tried to get the engine going with the momentum of that whirling flywheel.
October 9, 2011
"Wings of Stearman", by Peter M Bowers 1998. Considering the beautiful, black and white, period photographs and the authentic vintage font, it was difficult to believe that this book wasn't printed in 1945. This is my favorite book thus far on the classic Stearman biplane,
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews