The Planes Behind the Mission

Red Stearman

Serves: The Western region of the United State

Built: 1944

Manufactured: For the Army by the Boeing Company in Wichita, KA for approximately $9,000.

First Dream Flight: March 29, 2011 in Oxford, Mississippi and it was the Foundation’s very first Dream Flight.

History:  It was stationed at Sequoia Field, California, Tulare, California, Lancaster, California, Bakersfield, California, Sacramento, California and Ogden, Utah. Bill Fisher purchased it in 1982.  Once the plane was restored, it gave the Foundation’s very first Dream Flight on March 29, 2011 in Oxford, Mississippi.

Blue Stearman

Serves: The Eastern region of United States

Built: 1940

Manufactured: In the Boeing Airplane Company in Wichita, Kansas.

First Dream Flight: July 2011

History: The plane was used by the Army and stationed in Sikeston, Missouri, Hemet, California, Oxnard, Califorrnia, Glendale, Arizona and Ontario, California. William L. Fisher (our founder, Darryl’s, grandfather) purchased the plane in 1946 for $1,500 (the original cost of the airplane was approximately $11,000 in 1940).  This plane has flown four generations of the Fisher family and is near and dear to the family.  It gave Dream Flights 1,000th Dream Flight in 2015 and the Foundation’s 2,000th Dream Flight in 2016.

White Stearman

Serves: Texas and the lower Midwestern region of the United States

Built: 1942

Manufactured: In Boeing in Wichita, Kansas for approximately $9,000.

First Dream Flight: August 2011

History: Although the plane was commissioned by the Army, it was loaned to the Navy and sent to Naval Air Stations in New Orleans, Louisiana, Lambert Field (St. Louis), Missouri, Dallas, Texas, and Clinton, Oklahoma.  Fully restored around 2009.

The Spirit of Wisconsin

Serves: Wisconsin and neighboring Midwest states.

Built: 1943

Manufactured:  By Boeing, using the same engine found in General Patton’s tanks.

First Dream Flight: Dream Flights presented WWII veteran Eddie Lamken with the inaugural Dream Flight on June 19, 2019 in Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

History: This 9-cylinder Stearman was used to train military aviators during World War II, first at the Minneapolis Saint Paul Joint Air Reserve Station and later at the Naval Air Station in Corpus Christi, Texas. Once retired from training, the plane was purchased to work as a crop duster but instead sat in storage.

The plane found its way to Missouri, North Carolina, and Tennessee before finding a permanent home with Roland Garlinghouse, an aviator and Stearman enthusiast. He restored the plane and used it to travel locally and to vintage aircraft gatherings around the country; he also gave flights to neighboring retired naval aviators.

This is the first Stearman purchased by Dream Flights using funds raised by a local community. It’s stationed at Stevens Point Municipal Airport, where in 2016 WWII veteran Eddie Lamken’s Dream Flight inspired a family and a community. Lamken’s son, David Lamken, initiated and led a two-year fundraising campaign to raise just over $125,000, all of it earmarked for the purchase of the Spirit of Wisconsin.

Read more about Eddie Lamken’s story here.