Aircraft Boom Propels Agriculture's Air Force

摘要

Wellsville, Kansas, had a population of just over 2,000 as of 2019, so it's safe to say there probably haven't been too many population explosions since it was first incorporated about 150 years ago. It is not typically a notable place in terms of history, but Wellsville was located just a little over 150 miles from a place where aviation history was forged one rivet at a time. It is also where Lloyd Stearman was born in 1898 (back when the population was approximately 400). As it turns out, he played a notable role in this story of aerial application and carved an impressive footnote in history. Stearman studied architecture and engineering at Kansas State College before the First World War; then he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1918. After the war, the E.M. Laird Airplane Co. hired Stearman as a mechanic, but what he really wanted to do was build planes. In 1924 he joined the Swallow Airplane Manufacturing Co. out of Wichita, Kansas-a city whose aircraft production would soon designate it as "The Air Capital of the World."