--Press Release--

The 22nd Annual Stearman Fly-In in St. Francis, Kansas, was graced with nearly perfect weather. Approximately 120 aircraft attended, including 14 Stearmans, the fabric covered, radial-engined biplanes used in WWII as primary trainers.

Many fascinating aircraft flew in, including experimental aircraft, warbirds, and even a Grumman Widgeon amphibian.

The Stearman formation flight featured seven biplanes in two groups. The distinctive roar of their radial engines was music to the ears of the aviation enthusiasts.

The clear blue skies were often decorated with brightly colored fabric, as 6 hot air balloons flew on both Saturday and Sunday mornings. Twenty skydivers made 115 skydives, including 19 tandem jumps. In a tandem skydive, a novice passenger rides with an expert skydiver, both sharing a single ram-air canopy.

The skydivers thrilled the crowd with advanced canopy maneuvers, including a dragplane and a downplane maneuver. In the dragplane, the bottom skydiver in a three-stack flies his canopy upside down, and in a downplane, two attached skydivers fly straight down at 60 mph.

Some of the crowd took Stearman rides, and many enjoyed breakfast or lunch on the field.

Eric Baldwin of Henderson, CO, won the annual Stearman "balloon bust" contest.