FS2002 Stearman Kaydet

By Andrew Herd (20 June 2002)

couple of weeks back we were doing aerobatics in the open FIR when we got a call to look out for a couple of Stearmans flying in formation. The next fifteen minutes were spent in a frantic search - not because we were worried about having an airprox, but because we were afraid we would miss having one. You don't see Stearmans so ofter in the UK, let alone a pair flying in formation. This aircraft, that Boeing would have us call the Kaydet, is so closely associated with the man who inspired its development that nearly seventy years after the first hull was built, an air traffic controller on a different continent still called them after him. That is really something.

Lloyd Carleton Stearman began his aviation career as a mechanic in 1919. He was in good company - one of his colleagues was called Walter Beech and the pair of them joined up with another complete unknown by the name of Clyde Cessna to form Travel Air Manufacturing Company in 1924. Needless to say, a partnership of such giants could hardly last and Stearman left after a couple of years to found the Stearman Aircraft Corporation. In '29 the company was absorbed into the gigantic United Aircraft and Transport Corporation which ran not only Boeing, Sikorsky and Vought, but also United Airlines, Pratt & Whitney and Hamilton Standard. UA&T was broken up in an anti-trust case five years later at which time Stearman became a division of Boeing.

The Kaydet, designed by Harold Zipp and Jack Clark, first saw the light of day under the unromantic designation of "Model 70" and it was an unexpected success for Boeing. The second world war was its savior - the 1933 design might have had built in obsolescence with its fabric-covered wooden wings, single-leg landing gear and a heavy welded steel fuselage, but it was as tough as old boots and cheap to build. Its construction made it the ideal trainer for student pilots and it became the first completely standardized primary training plane to be used by both branches of the U.S. armed forces. In the process this simple plane acquired a bewildering variety of classifications, being known by the Army as the PT-13, PT-17, PT-18 and PT-27; and to the Navy as the N2S-1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

After the war the Stearman did sterling service as a recreational and crop dusting aircraft. No-one is sure how many were built in all, but between 1936 and 1944, Boeing built 8,584 Kaydets, in all versions, plus the equivalent of 2,000 more in spares, so the total production almost certainly topped 10,000; and in addition to sales to the US military, Stearmans were sold to China, Canada, Argentina, Venezuela, the Philippines and Brazil for military and civilian purposes. Many were still going strong in the early 1990s. At least two were flying over County Durham in 2002 and one is hanging from the ceiling of the aircraft collection in Duxford UK - be warned that the full size shot accessible from the thumbnails below is 1280 x 1024 res.

Power plants included 220-hp Lycomings and Continentals or a 245-hp Jacobs engine, which gave the cooking Stearman a top speed of 124 mph, a cruising speed of 106 mph and a ceiling of just over 11,000 ft. Range was a touch over 500 miles.

The download is just under 7 Mb, the zip decompressing to reveal an .exe that installs automatically. Checking out FS2002's aircraft folder showed up four liveries: two for the USAF, a USN one (shown in the screen shots) and a blue and white civilian starburst paint.

David Eckert's package, with flight dynamics by FSAviator and sound by Mike Hambly, has already cleaned up on the award front, which isn't really surprising. When I asked Dave what, in a taildragger-deprived FS world, made him choose the Stearman, he told me, "I felt that it seems like real flying. Open cockpit, the (virtual) wind in your face, the roar of a big radial engine, no radios or GPS (except in the civilian version). Just seat of your pants flying. Plus it's a fairly popular aircraft found all over the world." He added, "Since it's a wartime variant, it needs a little care to fly correctly with only 220 hp engine and not the 450 hp engines added later."

So why did the real Stearman achieve the success it did? The secret lay in the fact that although the plane was a delight to fly, it had just enough vices to teach novices to be careful. For example, it was a cinch to bounce it on paved runways because of the gear design and you fooled around with it in a crosswind at your peril; which is why so many Stearmans had serial replacements for their ailerons - the penalty for dropping a wing on final. But despite that, the Stearman was a lady in a stall, stabilized quickly in spins and generally flew well.

Okay, so what about Dave's plane? It is an FSDS model, which means it is compatible with FS2002, but won't be with 2004 - Dave is thinking about a GMax replacement, but like many FS developers, he isn't a fan of the way GMax was thrust on flight simulation with no regard to FSDS and his installer has the tagline ""Friends don't let friends use Gmax".

The Stearman has full moving parts, a fine virtual cockpit and a sounds set by Mike Hambly. From the moment it first loads it is clear that it is a good looking design. As far as I can tell, it duplicates the original's lines very closely and it is a complex model, with all the struts and bracing wires that are associated with pre-war biplane design. The big radial is nicely detailed, as are the cockpits, the fat fabric fuselage looks the part and the gear flexes on touchdown... and on touchdown... and on touchdown.

You just have to be a little careful with those landings. Still, the way FS2002 kicks up that dust is neat.

The flight model is, as far as I can tell (and I am no expert on thirties radial-engined biplanes, so if anyone out there has any hands-on experience I will be glad to hear from them) near to the spirit of the original. Flight Simulator isn't quite good enough to allow developers to capture taildragger handling, particularly the rudder pedal dance needed to keep them on the centerline, so you have to make allowances with planes like this, but I had serious fun flying it. Unusually for an FS plane, it actually stays in turns without constant application of aileron, so the air file developer is to be congratulated.

The avionics fit in the USN model is fairly sparse, limited as it is to the standard six. The civilian model has a slightly better fit, with a G-meter, radio stack and (God forbid) a GPS. In the period models, the only way to communicate is by waggling your wings. I guess there isn't really much more to say about it, except that I doubt that Dave is likely to respond to demands to fit an FMC.

One of the glories of the package is that the plane is fitted with a virtual cockpit (VC). To my great delight, the flight model passes the sideslip tests with flying colors, which is where the VC really shines, as otherwise there isn't any easy way of working out where the runway is when you are doing a steep approach in Flight Simulator. I tried to land on top of the blimp at Meig's a few times using this method, but in the end Hal Bryan from Microsoft came out and warned me that Bill would make me pay for any damage I caused, so I gave up. But drifting down with the engine chuntering away to itself on idle, trying to make sure no-one got my number before I touched the wheels on the canvas really was quite something.

The Stearman is a remarkably good effort by any standard, but as freeware, it really does stand in a class of its own. For some reason classic biplanes have never had as much attention from developers as they deserve and it is gratifying to see one done as well as this. The great strength of the package is the way it is so balanced - no one part is better than another, and the whole goes together to provide a remarkably enjoyable experience. "I guess it goes back to the debate of how detailed should the visual model be," Dave told me. "Some don't care as they only fly by instruments and never look out the window. This is not for them. This is eye candy that sounds right and flies right."

I am always humbled by the idea that people can devote so many hours to developing projects like this one. A quick check on FlightSim.Com shows that the Stearman has been downloaded over 7000 times, which makes it one of the most popular packages anywhere on the site. I doubt that more than a small percentage of the people using it have emailed Dave and told him how good it is, but that is the way of freeware. The most common reason for people giving up freeware coding is that they receive little recognition. Dave is one of the lucky ones - the Stearman has deservedly won an award and will hopefully go on to be upgraded and converted to GMax so that it is even better than it is now. But for every freeware developer like Dave, there are a hundred others who never have a chance to have their day in the sun; so one of the purposes of writing this review is to encourage you to email the author next time you download a package, and let him know how much you appreciate the time that went into it.

But for now, the Yellow Baron rides again.