Photo Caption: The Dixie Wing intends to develop a restoration program led by several of the unit’s female members as a way of honoring Rosie the Riveter. This photo shows three of the five female members who will take part in the restoration. Left to right: Alisa Lockwood, Robin Godfrey O’Reilly and Robyn Rosenzweig.
Written by Robyn Rosenweig
The Georgia unit of the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) has developed an N2S Kaydet (Stearman) restoration program led by several of the unit’s female members as a way of honoring “Rosie the Riveter.”
In January 2020 the Commemorative Air Force in Peachtree City, Georgia began restoring a Stearman (Boeing) N2S-2 Kaydet which they acquired in August 2019.
The CAF Dixie Wing in Peachtree City, Georgia has a sterling reputation for the high quality of their aircraft restorations. The Wing has completed several ambitious projects since their inception in 1987, with the most significant of these, to date, being the former NACA-operated Bell P-63A Kingcobra 42-68941, which Dixie Wing volunteers brought back to flying condition back in February 2017 following an intense, decades-long effort.
They have now turned their eyes to another important and often under-appreciated WWII aircraft, the Boeing Stearman N2S “Kaydet”. The bi-plane trainer and its numerous variants are most commonly known as “Stearmans” due to their origins with Stearman Aircraft (before Boeing acquired the company in 1934). More than ten thousand Stearmans rolled off the factory’s production line in Wichita, Kansas before the war’s end. The U.S. Army Air Forces operated them as the PT-13 and PT-17, while the U.S. Navy had their own variants, the NS and N2S. The Royal Canadian Air Force received several hundred examples, and called them “Kaydets”, a name which seemed to stick to the type as a whole. While a Kaydet might not be as exotic as a P-63, it is an infinitely more important aircraft type in American history. The American air war effort was literally built from the wings of these robustly-designed trainers. They were an essential element in the pilot training program for virtually every military airman on the North American continent during the decade straddling WWII and thousands of them continued on with civilian outfits of one variety or another following their military service. Today, there are almost a thousand examples currently listed on the U.S. civil registry alone, making the type easily the most numerous surviving WWII-era warbird. However, the vast bulk of these are U.S. Army Air Force PT-13s/PT-17s, with only two dozen or so being former U.S. Navy examples. This makes the Dixie Wing’s N2S even more special.
The Dixie Wing has developed a restoration program led by several of the unit’s female members as a way of honoring “Rosie the Riveter”, the cultural icon who represented the women workers in factories and shipyards during World War II.
There has been a lot of activity in the last few months. The Wing acquired a second airframe from near Austin, Texas in February 2020. Our Maintenance Officer Randy Hawkins explained the reason for the second airframe purchase, “I was surfing the Barnstormers website and I came across an ad for a Stearman project for sale. The condition seemed great and the price was even better. I decided to visit the seller in Texas and when I saw the project, I knew right there that we could not pass up such an awesome deal.”
After settling up with the previous owner, the Dixie Wing had the airframe transported back to Georgia by road. Hawkins noted: “This second airframe will allow us to jump start this restoration and save a lot of time. The previous owner has done an incredible job with the airplane and as a result, our volunteers can start this project already with a stand-alone airframe.”
Moreno Aguiari is the project manager for the Stearman rebuild and shared more details about the decision to acquire this second airframe: “We did not plan to acquire a second airframe, as our economic resources were pretty slim, but this deal made sense. After Randy visited with the owner of the aircraft and provided positive feedback, we took all of the pros and cons into consideration and it made sense to pull the trigger. While the acquisition will be a hit to our bank account in the short term, it will allow us to save money in the long term and cut a considerable amount of time on the restoration project.”
The Dixie Wing is currently investigating the history of this second Stearman, which appears to be another U.S. Navy example of the iconic WWII biplane trainer. The Dixie Wing’s first N2S joined the U.S. Navy as Bu.03531 on July 9th, 1941. Her first assignment was at Naval Air Station (NAS) Corpus Christi in Texas. The Navy then transferred the Kaydet to a Naval Reserve Air Base in Detroit, Michigan on April 9th, 1942. Her next assignment involved moving on April 1st, 1944 to Naval Air Intermediate Training (NAIT) at Rodd Field, back in Corpus Christi, Texas. The aircraft then moved to join the aircraft pool in Dallas, Texas that November, with the Navy striking her from their books on November 30th. The CAF has listed N2S-2 Bu.03531 as N50329 on the U.S. civil registry.
Earlier this year, the Dixie Wing realized that they needed to free up extra space at the museum to start a proper parts inventory process. With the Dixie Wing’s restoration shop already occupied by wings from the Ryan PT-26 belonging to the CAF’s Heart of America Wing (Dixie Wing members are helping a sister unit), they decided to purchase a 40ft shipping container to use as a storage facility. Members constructed and installed shelves and hardware inside the container, thus allowing them to properly store the parts from both airplanes and begin the inventory process.
The Dixie Wing set up an online orientation meeting for its members. However, on Saturday July 18th the CAF Dixie Wing volunteers were able to kick off the restoration process in person! The unit intends to develop a restoration program with leadership from several of the unit’s female members as a way of honoring “Rosie the Riveter,” the cultural icon who represented women workers at factories and shipyards during World War II.
As the Dixie Wing noted, “One of our goals with this restoration is to involve all our members who don’t have experience with restoring airplanes. The Stearman is a fairly straightforward airplane, and it is definitely less complex than other warbirds we have in our collection. With the supervision of our A&P mechanics and expert restorers any member could have the opportunity to restore a piece of history.” Maintenance Officer, Randy Hawkins held a tutorial for how to identify parts and consult the airplane parts catalog. He also showed female members how to use a sand blaster to clean up parts, providing them the opportunity to operate the tool themselves. Currently, there are six female members taking part in the restoration. This will indeed be a great way to honor the real Rosies who made such a critical contribution to the war effort.
CAF Dixie Wing member, Robyn Rosenzweig, who works as a business manager at a dental laboratory for her day job, told Warbird Digest: “This is a great opportunity for the female members to contribute to the mission of the CAF in a very meaningful way. During World War II, women took on a variety of disciplines previously closed to them, but it was the aviation industry that saw the greatest increase in female workers. More than 310,000 women worked in the U.S. aircraft industry during 1943. They comprised 65% of the industry’s total workforce, compared to just 1% in pre-war years. The intent of this project is to encourage more women to get involved in the CAF and aviation as a whole. In a way, we are like those women who came from all walks of life and took on the tasks of building airplanes, ships and tanks in American factories. We all have regular jobs, but we want to contribute to the restoration of this Stearman, and honor all the Rosies in the process.”
Within the last few weeks, the Dixie Wing volunteers began the painstaking inventory and parts assessment process which will allow the teams to determine what Kaydet components they can restore/refurbish and what they will need to build or acquire elsewhere. We look forward to covering the restoration from start-to-finish here at Warbird Digest!
To support the Stearman restoration, please visit www.cafstearman.com