Boeing-Stearman N2S-5 Kaydet

Mr. Lee Cundiff, owner of N1852M Boeing N2S-5, generously submitted the following history on his aircraft.

On April 17, 2007, I received a letter from the National Air and Space Museum regarding my Boeing-Stearman N2S-5 Kaydet, formerly U.S. Navy BuA 52552 from a request I made for its Aircraft History Card. The letter was signed by Dan Hagedorn, the Archives Reference Team Leader, along with printed copies of the original 35mm microfilmed revealing its history through WWII.

I learned it was acquired from the manufacture October 26, 1943, under the Air Corps contract number AC 19041, which was standard practice at the time for aircraft type common to both services and was then assigned to the Naval Aviation Primary Training (NAPT) facility Ottumwa, Iowa. It remained until the end of the war serving as the Navy’s primary flight trainer. Then April 1946 it was transferred to the Pool at Cabaniss Field Naval Auxiliary Station (a satellited of Naval Air Station Corpus Christi) where it stayed until being transferred to Glynco Naval Air Facility in Glynco, Georgia December 1946. It was placed in storage until January 31, 1948, where it was stricken from Navy inventory and was sold as surplus and became N.C. 1852M. The Aircraft Logbook shows the first formal civilian entry May 20, 1948 where it began its long journey ending up in my hangar 54 years later.

I acquired N1852M from a gentleman in the Bay area in 2002 who owned it for 37 years. His name was James Keith Bedford who has since passed away and was one of the last of the ‘Greatest Generation’. I am proud to say I knew him and proud to be the caretaker now of his Stearman. Keith was a WWII Navy fighter pilot who flew carrier based F6F Hellcat’s and Corsair’s. He told me once he flew all the piston engine fighters the Navy had and then transitioned into jet fighters during the Korean war, afterward serving in the Naval Reserve retiring Lieutenant Commander. He mentioned to me once he gave the Navy Blue Angles pilots a ride when they were performing in the San Francisco Bay area and said “they thought they were flying a World War 1 fighter aircraft.” He just smiled and said, “much has changed in aviation, and I didn’t have the heart to tell them differently”.

Every time I strap myself in the rear cockpit for flight I pause to remember those of the Greatest Generation and remember their sacrifice, and feel proud to keep the history alive. I’m equally proud to have the guys at Vintage Flying Service LLC now restoring NC1852M back to her glory days training those young pilots the art of flying.

Lee Cundiff, Owner