Episode Details

Sitting at the Galesburg airport this week is a 600-horsepower Stearman that still works as a crop duster, one of very few left anywhere. It is called The Beast, and it will probably fly a demonstration or two before the week is out. It's one of roughly 75 or more vintage biplanes arriving from as far as New Jersey and California for the 55th National Stearman Fly-In, running Sept. 7 through 12 at the Harrel W. Timmons Galesburg Regional Airport. Tye Hammerle, president of the National Stearman Fly-In, and Vice President Phillip Wolford came into the WGIL studio to walk through the week: two community days open to the public on Monday, Sept. 7, and Saturday, Sept. 12; a free Monday night talk by a retired Air Force pilot who was ordered to stop United Flight 93 in an unarmed F-16 on 9/11; flour bombs; and a 6:41 a.m. Dawn Patrol launch that ends with pancakes. Phillip Wolford and Tye Hammerle joined Galesburg's Morning News on Thursday, Sept. 3. Listen to the full interview above. They talked about: What Heather Penney was ordered to do on Sept. 11, 2001, and why she's speaking in Galesburg How the flour bomb contest actually works, and who gets to be the bombardier Why the spot landing is the hardest one to win What the paint schemes tell you about which planes were Army and which were Navy What crop dusting did to these airplanes after the war, and the one they call The Beast What it feels like in an open cockpit at 100 mph, and why Hammerle compares it to a Harley Why saying "Stearman" anywhere in the world gets you Galesburg   Related story: Vintage biplanes fill the Galesburg skies next week for the 55th Stearman Fly-In 🎧 Subscribe to Galesburg's Morning News: Apple podcasts.apple.com | Spotify open.spotify.com