Talk:Stearman Aircraft

Possible confusion

I have started a discussion in the aircraft project as there seems to be some understandable confusion here between the company and the biplane aircraft. Thanks Nimbus (Cumulus nimbus floats by) 03:41, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

Glenn Stearman / Stearman Aircraft Corporation

I question the accuracy of both the statement that Stearman ceased to exist and that it was a subsidiary of Boeing. Perhaps there were two Stearman Corporations?

Glenn Stearman (Lloyd Stearman's cousin) was an engineer for the company. I've read that he went into business with the Jensen brothers of Coffeyville (Stearman-Jensen Manufacturing Co.) though they had a falling out over the Ariel and he broke away to form his own company. Glenn Stearman continued to head Stearman Aircraft Corporation until his death. Though they were ultimately little more than a machine-parts manufacturing plant in the end and did produce parts for Boeing, they also had many other customers and they did get their start building aircraft. They were not owned by Boeing, but by Glenn Stearman. The man is legend, as are the aircraft he built and the ill-fated bicycle.

An incidental article in the Experimental Aircraft Association newsletter, an interview with Floyd Moreland by Pete Wiggins corroborates. (I'm not sure how to determine copyright: this is a source of information, not a copyright infringement, since the facts sited are historical, therefore though the article might be owned, the facts sited within it are not). Another source would be three generations of Stearmans in Valley Center and the people who still worked in the plant as of 1999 (and still do, if it is still there). There were once numerous articles written about the man, though I'm not sure what's available in the electronic era.

As of 1999, Stearman Aircraft Corporation was still owned by the Stearman family, though I'm unsure whether it still exists or is still owned by them. It is located in Valley Center, Kansas (a few miles North of Wichita) on 85th Street.

Perhaps this is a different company than the short-lived Stearman owned by his cousin Lloyd, where he worked for a time. If so, I would say ultimately that the former is more impressive than the latter, though it shrunk in importance when over-shadowed by Boeing. Glenn Stearman was one of the aircraft pioneers, right up there next to Beech, Leer, Cessna... and Lloyd. And though he quit building aircraft, his company survived.

At the very least, perhaps this info belongs with this page, since there must be some confusion? I know I was confused when I looked it up and discovered "Lloyd" and not Glenn credited for the company, and that it ceased to exist about 70 years before I stepped through its door. I will attempt to research Glenn in more in-depth for a separate article (or someone should).

Magpie's Friday (talk) 04:25, 4 April 2010 (UTC)

I believe you are talking about two different companies: the "Stearman Aircraft Products‎ Corporation" in Valley Center, Kansas that was and continues in operation as a machine shop and the "Stearman Aircraft Corporation" that was an aircraft manufacturer in Wichita, Kansas from 1927 until 1929 when it was absorbed into the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation. In September 1934, United Aircraft was forced to separate its airline and aircraft manufacturing operations and Stearman became a subsidiary of Boeing. It ceased to exist as a separate company or product line from that time on. Lloyd Stearman went on to become the President of Lockheed while cousin Glenn assumed the company helm of the machine shop. FWiW Bzuk (talk) 12:23, 4 April 2010 (UTC).

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