n6iap, I recently went to the Warbird Fest in New Hampshire, being called their 'first annual Warbird fest' and they asked all vets to line up and took a picture. They said that it would be in a future AMA magazine artical. Who knows. I had my head down, don't care for the notoriety.
Anyway, true about the super stearman but also the crop dusters had the 450. My friend Hank has an old crop duster converted back to a navy version with metal skins on the whole fuselage. We started about four or five years ago tearing it down and rebuilding it. So far we have done the bottom wings. They are covered, stitched, taped and Poly sealed and ready for paint. We haven't done anything for a couple of years but plan to get back to it when he gets back from his hunting trips in Feb. Hank has enough parts to build four or five of these things! The rotten trailing edge is from rats getting in a urinating and pooping. You could smell the evidence. If you put cented sheets for drying clothes in the wing, it will keep the rodents out. Mud wasps are a real problem too. The were in the leading edge was full of them when we took the metal skin off. bird.