Boeing Stearman PT-17 Kaydet Trainer

"The week after Pearl Harbor I enlisted in the Army Air Corps. They were taking almost everyone. I went to California for pilot training. I couldn’t fly the PT-17, the Stearman. I washed out in twelve hours and six minutes. I was commissioned as a navigator at Mather Field, Sacramento, California, on October 10, 1942."

Caption:
Most navigators in the Army Air Forces started as pilot cadets who “washed out” of pilot training, often in a PT-17, such as the one seen here. Good math skills were considered essential for those who made the transition to navigator.
Type: Photograph
Image Date: 1927
Credit: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Rebecca Crosby Hutchinson
Origin: National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
Creator: Hans Groenhoff
SI-2009-9036

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si-2009-9036.jpg

Most navigators in the Army Air Forces started as pilot cadets who “washed out” of pilot training, often in a PT-17, such as the one seen here. Good math skills were considered essential for those who made the transition to navigator.