A Better Blue

On December 27th, Blake Reid, Rob Kostecka and Dave O'Malley spent the day in the hangar putting new lower wing underside roundels on the Harry Hannah Boeing Stearman. The ones that came with the newly refurbished biplane (with a BCATP pedigree), had two things wrong with them - they were the wrong blue and they were peeling away in the slipstream due to poor paint adhesion.

Using the same material that is used these days for full-wrap car graphics or bus advertising, the roundels take the form of giant decals... which as we now know, were used in many aircraft factories supplying trainers to the BCATP. Working in the three feet available under the Stearman's wings, the team managed to finish the transplant in three hours. Next... the upper wings and tail fin.

O'Malley applies a roundel to the Stearman's port wing.