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The Boeing-Stearman NS was a primary trainer that was the first of what became the Boeing-Stearman Model 75 Kaydet family to enter service with the US military. Stearman Aircraft began work on a basic trainer in 1933, producing the Stearman X-70. This was a two-seat single bay unequal span biplane, built using the same methods as Boeing's early fighter biplanes (starting with the PW-9). The aircraft was fabric coveredc, with a wooden framework for the wings and a welded steel tube frame for the fuselage. It had non-retractable main wheels and a tail wheel.
The X-70 was submitted to the Air Corps in 1934 in response to a requirement for a primary trainer, but it would be the US Navy that was first to order it into the production. The Navy had a stockpile of surplus Wright J-5 (R-790-8) engines and they ordered sixty-one trainers powered with that engine. Stearman called it the Model 73 while the Navy called it the Stearman NS-1.
By the time the Navy ordered more aircraft production had also begun for the Army Air Corps, as the PT-13 or Stearman Model 75. In Army service the Model 75 was given a new designation each time the engine changed, producing the PT-17 and PT-18, but in Naval service all Model 75s, regardless of engine, were given the N2S designation (even after Stearman became part of Boeing).
Engine: Wright J-5 (R-790-8)
Crew: 2
Span: 32ft 2in
Length: 24ft 1/4in
Height: 9ft 2in
Empty Weight: 1,936lb
Loaded Weight: 2,717lb
Maximum Speed: 124mph
Cruising Speed: 106mph
Climb rate: 840ft/ min
Ceiling: 11,200ft
Range: 505 miles