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Stearman C-3B C3B NC5687 Biplane
Beach Photo Golden Age Vintage Aviation 1928
Wichita-Built Open-Cockpit Biplane with Surf and PierDESCRIPTIONThis is a vintage black and white photograph of a Stearman biplane parked on a sandy beach, with surf rolling in behind it and a pier and wooded headland hazy in the distance. The registration 5687 is painted on the rudder above the Stearman script, and the Golden Years of Aviation U.S. register lists NC5687 as a Stearman C-3B, serial number 133. The print shows the exposed radial engine and two-blade propeller, the open cockpits and the wire-braced wings. A white number, 877, is printed in the lower part of the image, and the reverse is blank apart from a pencil 10. Please note the print has a rip along the left side, described in the condition section and shown in the listing photos. The photograph carries no caption, so no photographer, date or location is given. Images were scanned at 600dpi.The C-3B was the airplane that put Stearman in business. Lloyd Stearman founded the company in Venice, California and moved production to Wichita, Kansas. The C3 was the first Stearman design to earn a type certificate, and the C-3B, introduced in 1928, became the company's volume seller: a three-place biplane with the pilot in the rear cockpit and two passengers forward, powered by a Wright J-5 Whirlwind radial. Stearman built about 130 airplanes in 1928, and by June of that year the Wichita factory was turning out two and a half a week. The company became a Boeing subsidiary in 1934, and its later Model 75 became the Boeing-Stearman Kaydet trainer, with more than 10,000 built.The type worked in many roles. Feeder airlines flew C-3Bs on short-haul airmail routes in the late 1920s, the Commerce Department's Airways Division used them to check and survey the nation's airways, and many later served as sportplanes and advanced trainers into the 1930s. The model's best-known journey was the Flying Carpet, a C-3B flown around the world by Moye Stephens with writer Richard Halliburton as passenger. Their trip began in December 1930 and ended in June 1932, after 33,660 miles over 34 countries, with Timbuktu on the route and a climb to about 18,000 feet to photograph Mount Everest. That airplane was serial 248, a different airframe from the one in this photograph. Nothing found ties NC5687 itself to a named pilot, operator or event, so this print is offered as a clear period study of an important early Stearman.Every effort is made toward fact checking and provenance, including background research through news and historical archives. If any listing is incorrect in any way and you're unsatisfied with the item, please connect with me and I'll make it right. Orders placed before Noon CDT ship same day via Ground Advantage with tracking so you know exactly when it will arrive. Returns accepted on all items exceeding $25 in cost. All shipments receive rigid, professional packaging, sealed and protected in acid free protectors. Shipping is free and already built into the price, so the BIN price is exactly what you pay, no surprise shipping costs at checkout.CONDITIONVintage black and white photographic print on cream-toned paper with a plain border along the right and bottom edges. There is a rip along the left side of the front, starting at the edge and running diagonally inward toward the end of the upper wing, with the paper lifted along the line, a small curved flap where it begins and a short secondary crease branching off it. The rip runs through the sky and stops at the wing, and it shows on the back as a raised, torn line at the edge. The image is otherwise sharp at the engine, propeller and tail, and the 5687 registration and Stearman script are easy to read. A few tiny specks show in the sand. The reverse is blank apart from a pencil 10 at the top right, with a faint crease near that corner and light edge wear. There are no stamps or captions, and the only mark on the front is the white number 877. Please review all photos closely, as they are part of the description.
