✈️The Remarkable Story Behind Our 1940 Stearman

Have you ever wondered where our 1940 Boeing Stearman has been… and whose hands have guided it over the past 86 years?

This week I took a deep dive into our Stearman’s history, and what I uncovered was far more fascinating than I ever expected.

📜 Among the aircraft records is the original Bill of Sale showing that Kenneth L. Bemis of Brawley, California purchased our Stearman in 1952—for the princely sum of $10.00.

💵 Yes… ten dollars.

Forty-two years later, in 1994, Mr. Bemis sold the airplane to Early American Wings in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for $800.

While those numbers seem unbelievable today, they tell only a tiny part of the story.

❤️ The real treasure wasn’t the airplane…

It was the man who cared for it.

🔎 As I began researching Kenneth Bemis, I discovered he lived one of the most extraordinary aviation lives imaginable.

👦 Born in rural Maine in 1916, Ken originally dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. That changed forever when his father took him for a ride with a traveling barnstormer.

🛩️ Like so many aviators, one flight was all it took. Aviation became his life’s passion.

🎓 After high school, he traveled to Burbank, California to attend Aviation Mechanic Training School. Then began working for Howard Huges in the 1930's.

📷 During his time in Burbank, he even met Amelia Earhart, who graciously allowed the young mechanic to photograph her as she prepared for her historic Hawaii flight.

🛠️ Soon after earning his Airframe & Powerplant certificate, Ken went to work for Consolidated Aircraft.on B-24 Liberators and PBY Catalinas. Before the United States entered World War II, he was sent to England as a civilian technical representative supporting the Royal Air Force under the Lend-Lease program.

🌍 He spent the war serving in both the European and Pacific theaters—not as a soldier, but as one of the civilian experts whose work kept Allied aircraft flying.

🌾 When peace returned, so did Ken.

Settling in California’s Imperial Valley, he purchased surplus Army Stearmans and transformed them into agricultural crop dusters. Before long, he had established his own aircraft maintenance business, eventually becoming manager of Brawley Municipal Airport.

🏆 For an astonishing 75 years, Ken held an FAA Inspection Authorization—a distinction few mechanics have ever achieved.

💬 He once said his mission in life was simple:

“To prevent people from harming themselves in defective aircraft.”

That philosophy kept countless pilots safe for generations.

🕊️ Kenneth Bemis passed away peacefully in 2017 at the age of 100 years and 11 months.

📍 Today, the road leading to Brawley Municipal Airport bears his name—Ken Bemis Drive—a fitting tribute to the mechanic, airport manager, entrepreneur, and aviation legend who devoted his life to keeping airplanes flying safely.

✈️ As I stood beside our Stearman this week after its annual inspection, I couldn’t help but think about the hands that maintained it, the stories it witnessed, and the remarkable man who owned and cared for it for forty-two years.

❤️ We don’t merely own an old airplane.

For a little while, we’re privileged to be caretakers of a remarkable piece of American aviation history.

👋 The next time you visit the Airpark, stop by the hangar and say hello to our Stearman.

😊 I’ll bet she’d have a few stories to tell.