Chris and Theresa's Picture From The Past

I don't know if we were supposed to post a photo of our past, but I wanted to share this unassuming little gem of the past which affects my life now.

That's an old Beechcraft press photo with 20 aircraft made right here in Liberal. On top of that, the 20 were bought as trainers for the Mexican Air Force, and the Spanish population of Liberal is 60% of the entire population. I found the photograph on eBay on accident, and it shows our World War II vintage hangar in much better shape than you'll find it today:

I've been trying to take panoramas of some of Theresa and I's experiences since moving to southwest Kansas, which you can find at www.TeamGivan.com/family. I'm bad at updating it in a timely manner, but it chronicles things like our recent chance to compare the cockpits of a World War II primary trainer (like the Stearman Grandpa got to ride in) and the next trainer in the sequence (then called a basic trainer). There was quite a difference in sophistication of instruments and construction--the primary trainer uses a plywood wing section as a weight-bearing section under the cockpit while the basic trainer uses steel tubes with a light metal skin covering the tubes the for aerodynamic effect that won't hold weight.

Primary Trainer Controls

Primary Trainer Construction

Basic Trainer Controls

Basic Trainer Construction