Kansas Aviation Museum dedicates newly restored Stearman Model 4D
On the second floor of the Kansas Aviation Museum’s west wing sits the world’s newest restored Stearman Model 4D.
Forty of the planes were built in Wichita from 1929 through 1931, and only 14 still exist. This one was built in 1931 and sold to Texaco.
On Tuesday night, the “Texaco 11” was scheduled to be dedicated to the museum. Volunteers who helped restore it and donors who funded the project also were set to be recognized.
“It took nine years to restore,” Walt House, historian of the Kansas Aviation Museum, said Tuesday. “It took a lot of painstaking work. Restoring an old airplane like this, we went back to the original type of cotton fabric.”
The Kansas Aviation Museum acquired the remnants of the plane in 1998. The fuselage and three cardboard boxes of the plane, serial number 4027, were donated by Bruce Bissonette, a retired aviation writer from El Paso.
The Women of Wichita foundation, founded by Helen Galloway, donated $20,000 for the plane’s restoration.
They asked for the money, and these dear people put it together.
Helen Galloway
Women of Wichita“We give to wonderful causes in Wichita, and they asked for the money, and these dear people put it together,” Galloway said.
Kansas native Lloyd Stearman moved Stearman Aircraft Co. to the city in 1927. In 1929, the company was almost a victim of the stock market crash. But it was saved when it and Boeing Airplane Co. in Seattle became part of United Aircraft and Transport Co.
The Texaco 11 first served as a fleet plane for Texaco, then as a cotton crop duster in Mississippi before being sold to the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1941. Records indicate it was dismantled and salvaged in 1965.
Original blueprints were used to restore the plane to its original look. On Tuesday, House surveyed the finished product.
“It is like a dream come true,” he said.
“I’ve got a love for it and the guys who started working on it, kept it going until we got it all done.”
Beccy Tanner: 316-268-6336, @beccytanner
This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 9:06 AM with the headline "Kansas Aviation Museum dedicates newly restored Stearman Model 4D."