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Listen: The Assorted Selections ProgramPilot posing with a Stearman PT-17 plane during primary flight training at Dorr Field in Arcadia, Florida.
Image Number
Photographer
Date
Rights
Collection
Geographic Term
Subject Term
Air bases--Florida--Arcadia
Airports--Florida--Arcadia
Military bases--Florida--Arcadia
World War, 1939-1945
World War II
WWII
Flight jackets
Leather jackets
Aviation
Military education--Florida--Arcadia
Aeronautics, Military--Study and teaching
Flight training
Propeller-driven aircraft
Biplanes
Government aircraft
Airplanes, Military--United States
Training planes
Stearman PT-17 (Training plane)
Armed Forces--Training of
Air pilots, Military--Training of
Portraits--Florida--Arcadia
Portrait photography--Posing
Multiplanes
Corporate Subject
Physical Description
General Note
The Stearman PT-17 was a fabric-covered biplane with two open cockpits and a 220 horsepower motor. The student sat in front and the instructor in back.
Dorr Field, named after pilot Stephen Dorr Jr., was located 11 miles east of Arcadia. It was established during WWI to support flight training operations at nearby Carlstrom Field and subsequently closed at the end of the war. Dorr Field was reopened in 1942 by John Riddle and operated as a civilian contract school for training Army aviators. It was one square mile and had no runways. After WWII, both Carlstrom and Dorr Fields were sold to the State of Florida for a dollar. The site of Dorr Field was later reused as the site of the minimum security DeSoto County Correctional Institution.
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