Beautiful Blue Flying Machines…

Howard Aviation is one of our neighbors on Brackett Airfield, which you probably already know if you follow the California Scooter blog.  You’ve seen a lot of photos on our blog with airplanes in the background, and Howard Aviation services most of them.  Mr. Howard is pretty cool guy and he’s always been quick to help us when we want to get up close and personal with an interesting airplane.

I spotted a very cool old biplane parked in the Howard Aviation hangar yesterday.  It was just magnificent (there’s no other way to describe it)…it’s a recently restored Boeing PT-17.  Most of you probably know this airplane as the Stearman (that’s what it was called before Boeing bought the Stearman company in 1934).   Boeing and Stearman built about 10,000 of these airplanes before and during the early days of World War II.  The US Army Air Forces (the predecessor of the US Air Force) and the US Navy were snapping them up as trainers.  After the war, the government sold them as surplus.  There are about a thousand of these wonderful machines still flying today.

When I saw the PT-17 in its original Army colors, I knew I had to grab a shot of our blue Classic California Scooter with it.  The only blue bike we had handy was Bill Murar’s Lake Erie Loop Rally bike, so I rode it right into the Howard Aviation hangar and grabbed this shot…

Two blue beauties...a 2010 Classic by California Scooter and a PT-17 by Boeing

I had a super wide zoom lens on my Nikon (I have the 12-24mm Tokina, which is a great lens), and it was perfect for this shot.  I was only about 4 feet in front of the motorcycle when I grabbed this photo.   That 12mm  wide angle is really cool.   You can get some interesting effects with a wide angle lens – take a look at this one…

Up close and personal...two beautiful blue Classics

This version of the PT-17 has a Continental 7-cylinder radial engine, and I can’t wait to hear it run.  This is a magnificent airplane, and this particular specimen looks like it’s brand new.  If you love classy machinery (and you wouldn’t be reading this blog if you didn’t), you sure would be impressed with this old bird.  I know I was.  

So, about that engine…

Seven air-cooled Continental cylinders...good for about 98 mph!

If I’m in the plant when they fire this beauty up I’ll try to grab a video of it and post it here.   

That’s it for now, boys and girls…enjoy the weekend and the holiday season..I sure am!  I think I’ll get out for a bit on my California Scooter tomorrow.  I may even wear a white scarf, a leather jacket, and flight goggles!