After the conflict was over, thousands of surplus aircraft were sold on the civilian market. In the immediate postwar years, they became popular as crop dusters and sports planes, and for aerobatic and wing walking use in air shows.

After the war, Delta acquired surplus military Boeing Stearman PT-17 planes and converted them for crop-dusting work. Boeing Stearmans gradually replaced the older Huff Daland Dusters. By December 1954, Delta's Agricultural Division (the renamed Dusting Division) owned 31 Boeing Stearmans and 2 Huff Daland Dusters.

A Stearman is an open-cockpit biplane whose fuel tanks are in the upper wings. The fuel gauge isn’t a dial on the instrument panel; rather, it’s a heavy transparent plastic tube, yellow with age, dangling from the underside of the wing tank.

In the latter 1930s, towards the end of the Stearman's mail-carrying days, the aircraft became extremely popular for crop dusting. Delta used six of these early Stearmans for dusting work. Registration and serial numbers for Delta's early Stearman cropdusters:

Best known for preparing our greatest generations pilots for WWII. A robust trainer, so well designed it provided service well past it’s duty to the U.S. government. It found callings as a civilian pilot trainer, crop duster and entertaining spectators at airshows.

Sep 14, 2024 · During WWII, it becomes the primary trainer for both the U.S. Army Air Forces and Navy. Many Stearman aircraft were sold to civilians and adapted for use as crop dusters, sports planes, and air show performers. One of the key features of …

It served as a primary trainer throughout the war and remained in service until its retirement in 1945. The Museum’s aircraft, like many others of the breed, owes its survival to civilian aerial-applicator services. It flew for many years as a crop duster before the Military Aviation Museum acquired it, one of the first aircraft in the ...

Both LSFM Stearmans spent a long post-war career as a crop duster before their most recent restoration. Flight experiences are available in the Stearman where you can experience the barnstorming era of the iconic open-cockpit biplane.

Apr 25, 2017 · According to Warbird Alley 1, of the 10,584 airplanes built (around 8,584 fully built, with the equivalent of 2,000 more planes worth of spare parts 2, 7), 1,000 are still flying today, whether it’s dusting/spraying crops or flying aerobatic shows with revved up engines.

The Stearman 75 Kaydet was used by the US Army Air Corps and the US Navy as a primary/basic trainer aircraft. After WWII many Stearman 75 were used as crop-duster aircraft due to their slow and low-level flight capability.