Lloyd Carlton Stearman

Lloyd Carlton Stearman (October 26, 1898 – April 3, 1975) was an American aviator and aircraft designer.

Lloyd was born in Wellsville, Kansas. From 1917 – 1918, he attended Kansas State College (later renamed Kansas State University) in Manhattan, Kansas, where he studied engineering and architecture. In 1918, he left school to enlist in the U.S. Naval Reserve in San Diego, California; while there Stearman learned to fly Curtiss N-9 seaplanes.

During the mid-1920s Matty Laird, designer of the Laird Swallow aircraft, hired Lloyd as a mechanic, giving him his first exposure to fixed-wing aircraft manufacturing. On February 4, 1925, Lloyd and Walter Beech teamed up with Clyde Cessna to form the Travel Air Manufacturing Company, where he remained until 1927, when he left to form his own manufacturing company. It was there that he built the Stearman C-2B and C-3B, and designed other bi-winged models for mail and cargo delivery, observation and training.

In the early 1930s, Lloyd became president of Lockheed Aircraft Company (today called Lockheed Martin Corporation) and designed agricultural aircraft. In 1948 more than 4,345 Stearman aircraft were used in agricultural flying.

In recognition of his contributions to the aircraft industry, Lloyd Stearman was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio in July 1989.

External links

* [http://www.nationalaviation.org/website/index.asp?webpageid=%7BF3401AC2-408C-42A7-AD0F-CDDC7942F110%7D&eID=321 Biography] from The National Aviation Hall of Fame