Staggerwing

It’s a Beech 17 to be exact, but they’re referred to as Staggerwings. A bi-plane with a negative bias in the alignment of the wings, which improved the stability quite a bit near stall speeds. A stunningly gorgeous plane.

It made a couple of passes over our house today, giving me time to grab the camera as it took off back towards Van Nuys Airport.

Image credit: FlightRadar24

I suspect that this is the aircraft that used to be owned by Clay Lacy. The current aircraft registration shows a different owner, which doesn’t surprise me, given Clay’s age.

There are only about 200 of these aircraft left flying, and there’s only one dark red one out at Van Nuys that I’m aware of. It was out at Camarillo a couple of times when I was a regular at the CAF hangar there and I think I’ve got some close-up pictures of it. I’m surprised I haven’t posted them here already, but that can be fixed.