Learning Center Our Enshrinees

Lloyd Carlton Stearman

• Learned to fly in a Curtiss N-9 seaplane while in the U.S. Navy Reserve Flying Corps.
• Went to work as a mechanic for EM Lairs Company in 1920 on the Laird Swallow airplane.
• Learned the finer points of flying from another EM Laird employee, Walter Beech (enshrined 1977).
• Became chief engineer of the Swallow Airplane Company in 1924 where the Swallow airplane became one of the most coveted planes among America’s sporting pilots.
• Formed the Stearman Aircraft Company in 1926 which produced the C-1, C-2, C-2m and the C-2C.
• Joined with others to purchase Lockheed Aircraft Company in 1930 and became its first president.
• Designed the famous Electra airplane as President of Lockheed.
• In the late 1940s, the Stearman Aircraft Division of Boeing produced the Boeing Model 75 trainer for the Army and Navy and it became known as the Stearman.
• Wanted to rejoin Lockheed but never told the employment office that he used to be the president. While at Lockheed, he assisted on designing the F-104, vertical takeoff and landing craft, re-entry vehicles, and the Lockheed Constellations.