PT-17 Stearman Recall Plane
Comments
Album info
During WWII the distinctively painted "Recall" Stearman were used at Navy primary flight training bases. Because primary training aircraft had no radios, when a sudden storm or other emergency arose there were only two ways to "recall" the flying cadets back to base. One was to hoist a Recall signal flag. One flag meant all solo students shall return without delay, and others exercise caution. Two flags flying together meant everyone must return immediately. In many cased aircraft were too far away so see the flags. Then the only option was to launch the special "Recall" aircraft which, not coincidentally, was painted in its entirety to look like the recall flags: blue stripes on a white background. When a cadet saw the Recall aircraft flying around the area, they knew they were to return to base at once. Each base painted their own Recall aircraft using one of their standard overall Orange-Yellow N2S aircraft. The line, serial and other numbers were masked over and the entire airplane was painted white. The
