Stearman 4DM Senior Speedmail NC485W story by Gilles Auliard, information by owner Don Axinn

A lone airplane struggles against a ferocious headwind somewhere over the vast plains of the mid-west. Ahead of this little dot, the sky is getting more menacing by the minute. An average pilot would turn around or land immediately, but the man and the machine are on a mission, carrying the mail as fast as possible along one of the Contract Air Mail (CAM) routes that crisscrossed the US in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Thanks to some dedicated individuals, such as Addison Pemberton of Spokane, Washington, USA, this vignette is not completely a thing of the past. History comes alive every time the roar of the 450 hp Pratt & Whitney Wasp Jr of his imposing Stearman 4DM Senior Speedmail is heard.... At the end of the 1920s Stearman designed the model 4, sized between the C-3 and the much bigger M-2. To cover the needs of the potential market, the model 4 could accommodate 3 different types of engines, while the fuselage was of two different types: a sporty 3-seater and a mailplane. The CM version was the preferred choice, the biggest client being American Airways, which ordered 12 Stearman 4CM-1 (a version optimized for night and cold weather flying). From 1931 to 1934, American Airways operated its fleet of Senior Speedmails, later converting them to instrument trainers. In the late 1930s, Mel Carberry, a crop duster from Fresno, California, USA, purchased nine examples of the type from Standard Oil, American Airlines, and a private owner. Without his intervention, the breed would have vanished for good. In the late 1960s, Carberry advertised the Senior Speedmails for sale and three were acquired by Bob Penny, who rebuilt one of them to flying status, and kept the two others as projects/source of spares. One of them was NC485W, originally delivered to American. Sold in 1974 to David Tallichet, the airplane was stored in parts at various locations. Many years later, when Addison Pemberton bought it from Tallichet, he had to put together a real puzzle; he found the landing gear in Long Beach, California, the tail and wings at Chino, California, and the fuselage in Kansas, USA. Once all the parts were found, everything was trucked to Gillespie Field, in San Diego, California, for restoration. "The restoration process lasted 3 years, the first flight taking place May 3rd, 1992. With the help of a few volunteers including Wally Dier, Jon Bartlet and Don Prim, my family and I were able to restore the airplane back to the original American Airline colors, and we converted the airplane from a model 4CM to a 4DM by installing a 450 hp R-985 Pratt & Whitney engine. [This is consistent with 1920-1930s practices.] This is a much more reliable engine and readily available than the Wright J9-6. It's been flying since, and clocked 700 hours." "It has been a turn-key antique airplane, I had virtually nothing done to it since restoration. It is a joy: stable with terrific cross-country capability. Cruising at 130 mph (209 kmh), it has a range of 5 hours, and will carry virtually anything you can put in. It has a 1,600 lb (726 kg) useful load, grosses at 4,100 lb (1,860 kg) and climbs at nearly 1,000 ft (305 m)/min through 10,000 ft (3,048 m). In 1993, we recreated the trans-continental air mail route with my two boys, Jay, 11 at the time, and Ryan, 7, and Ben Scott from Reno, Nevada in his Speedmail. Flying from Reno, Nevada, USA to Iowa City, Iowa, USA was wonderful experience, and my kids loved it." Addison points out how ahead of its time the Speedmail was: "It was the first aircraft to incorporate a NACA cowling and 4130 steel tubing. All the flying wires are disappearing in the wing, so that all the wire fittings are faired inside the wing, a very elegant solution for the times. The airplanes with the original engines required hand greasing of the valves, so the cowling was hinged to allow easy access to the engine. We added a few modern amenities, such as hydraulics 11' Ace brakes, a modern electrical system, we hid all the radio gear and transponder on the ride side of the instrument panel, but, short of these, the airplane is pretty much the way it was when flying with American." "The pilot sits in the back cockpit, while the two passengers are in front of him. It is 36 in (91 cm) wide, so there is plenty of elbow room. Ahead of the passengers is the mail compartment that can carry 350 lb (159 kg) of mail. Once you're inside, it is very roomy and comfortable." "But the visibility is poor, although s-turning lets you see around the cowling. The landing gear is wide and the tail wheel steering is excellent, so the airplane ground handles beautifully with no braking. On take off the ground roll is about 800 ft (244 m), and quite lethargic, but once you reach the magic 100 miles/hour (161 kmh), the climb performance becomes wonderful. In the air, you have no direct forward visibility, so I tend to do mild s-turns, even in cruise flight. Most of the landings are made with what I call a "Peekaboo", just enough to see around the cowl. I try to keep the nose flat with a minimum of power, and the airplane pretty much lands on its own. Once the tires kiss the ground, you can brake as much as you want and you will not raise the tail again. It does not have any tendency to nose over. Braking is necessary even though the tires create a lot of drag. It's a big airplane, and there is a lot of weight, so it is not a short field airplane. I would compare it to an AT-6, in terms of weight and directional stability, but the visibility is absolutely not comparable..." Depending on the sources, 36 to 38 Stearman 4 were produced. Nowadays, 12 can be found on the N-register, all of them in private hands. Of theses 5 are flyable, while the others are in need of TLC at various levels. This is still a pretty healthy population for a little known type of airplane.