I was emailed by a member who asked me who the man was in the PT-17 Stearman.
He was a well know stunt pilot in the late 40's and early 50's.
His most famous career moment has to be that B-29 Picture missing the wing by 5 feet...The story goes like this ..he was already doing his airshow stunts when 3 B-29 Bombers came rolling in a hour late in the middle of his maneuver hew saw the B-29 at the last second and pulled that stick as far as he could to avoid getting killed and the rest is history.....The B-29 pilot i'm sure got a ear full when he landed by the commanding officer..but that's another story.
He did flying stunts for Hollywood too.He was at the controls of the Ryan in the Jimmy Stewart flim
"The Spirit of St Louis" and a few others.
One of the other well know pictures of Chet Derby is flying upside down under the market street bridge.
see picture.
JP
