Retro-Aero · The restoration record
A Stearman.
A living story.
Follow the restoration of N52088, from the project we acquired to the details bringing an airplane back together.
1943 Boeing Stearman · 75-5054
Photographic edition through 7 October 2026
Latest progress / 6–7 October 2026
Wings together.
Details coming to life.
The Stearman takes its familiar shape
With the yellow upper and lower wings installed around the blue fuselage, N52088 now has the unmistakable outline of a Stearman. The 6 October workshop photograph marks a visible change from the separate assemblies in the earlier chapters.
The larger shape has returned. The close work continues: the engine and propeller, wheel assemblies, and lighting all appear in the newest photographic sequence.
Powerplant in view
A front view brings the radial engine and installed propeller into focus, with the yellow wings behind them.
The small assemblies
A close view of a wheel assembly records another detail of the continuing workshop work.
A red light at the wingtip
A green light at the wingtip
The tail light shines
The 7 October photographs show the red, green, and tail position lights illuminated—a small but striking change in the airplane’s appearance.
Before the restoration / History & provenance
One airframe.
Many chapters.
N52088 carries construction number 75-5054. Its civil records identify it as a Boeing E75; the project preserves the story of a 1943 Stearman and portrays the N2S-4 wartime training story.
The surviving civil record follows the airplane from postwar government disposal through agricultural service and successive owners to the present restoration.
The history we portray. Retro-Aero’s intended presentation recalls the 99 Army-marked Stearmans diverted to the Navy. That portrayal is distinct from proof that this individual airframe was one of those 99. Original military service remains an area of research.
- 1943Wartime Stearman manufacture. Research associates 75-5054 with Army serial 42-16891; the complete original service record has not yet been established.
- 1946A War Assets Administration bill of sale records the transfer to Thomas C. Ferguson on 21 September.
- 1951–1965The records document an agricultural chapter, including duster approval, spray-system work, and a 1965 R985 engine conversion. This describes a historical configuration.
- 1971–2013Successive owners carry the airframe’s civil story forward. Yesteryear Aviation appears in the January 2013 transfer.
- 6 AUGUST 2021The bill of sale names Charles Dale. Dale and Lynn’s restoration chapter begins with a disassembled project and completed upper wings.
Chapter 01 / Restoration record
The Project We Acquired
Recorded 6 August 2021.
An airplane in pieces
The Retro-Aero chapter begins with an aircraft that had already been taken apart. N52088 arrived as a collection of major assemblies, loose components, and work at different stages of completion. That starting point matters: the disassembly was inherited, not performed by Retro-Aero as the opening act of this restoration. The August 2021 photographs record the condition and organization of the project around its acquisition. The bill of sale naming Charles Dale is dated 6 August 2021.
Recorded 6 August 2021.
Packing a future airplane
Before the aircraft could take shape in a new workshop, it had to travel safely as separate pieces. The album records the practical work of building supports, arranging parts, and securing the load. Finished yellow wings, uncovered structures, and small components shared the same journey. These photographs are a useful inventory of the project at the handover: not a complete condition report, but a record of what was physically present and how it was carried.
Chapter 02 / Restoration record
Establishing The Baseline
Recorded 11 August 2021.
Into the workshop
The August 2021 workshop photographs establish the beginning of the present restoration record. The bare fuselage, separate wing assemblies, and completed surfaces can be seen together. This is the baseline against which the later pictures should be read. Some metalwork was already primed; some wooden structure was exposed; some surfaces were finished. Their appearance on arrival records inherited condition, rather than proving when each earlier task was performed or who performed it.
Recorded 15 September 2021.
The structure beneath
With the covering absent, the fuselage becomes a visible network of tubes, fittings, and attachment points. These early views make later changes easier to understand: the completed outline will eventually hide much of what is open here. The baseline is both a starting condition and a memory of the structure inside the finished airplane. The photographs document appearance; detailed findings, measurements, and release-to-service decisions belong in the aircraft maintenance records.
Recorded 9 September 2021.
Back on its wheels
Wheels and landing gear give a disassembled project a recognizable stance. The album follows individual wheel components on the floor, assembled wheels, and the aircraft standing on its gear. These modest changes alter the working life of the project: an assembly can be moved, approached, and photographed as an airframe. The sequence also preserves details that become less visible when fairings and finished surfaces are added.
Recorded 30 September 2021.
Every part has a place
A restoration is carried by small things as much as by wings and fuselage. The early album includes instruments, brackets, fittings, panels, and bags of hardware. Seen together, they show why the project could not be understood only as a set of large assemblies. Each component had to retain its identity while the larger airplane was being rebuilt. The photographs preserve an inventory in pictures, even where a caption or individual work entry is absent.
Chapter 03 / Restoration record
Wood, Fabric & Patience
Recorded 31 March 2022.
Learning by doing
The 2022 photographs bring the people and the materials into the same frame. Cloth is held, aligned, folded, and worked around an existing structure. Other pictures show close attention at the bench and collaboration over the same assembly. These are the moments a finished airplane cannot display: the shared concentration, the repositioning of a hand, and the time spent on an edge before it looks effortless. The images record participation without assigning every pictured task to an unnamed individual.
Recorded 25 September 2022.
The lower-wing chapter
The album distinguishes the completed upper wings inherited in 2021 from the uncovered wing work that continued during the present restoration. The 2022 sequence shows wood structure, metal leading-edge material, fabric, and progressively finished surfaces. That distinction is central to the story: the project advanced from an uneven starting point, with different assemblies needing different kinds of attention. These photographs follow the exposed wing structure before the fabric concealed it.
Recorded 10 October 2022.
Lines beneath the skin
A wing is easiest to read while its structure is still visible. The photographs show the repeated rhythm of ribs, the spanwise members, and the change from wood to metal at the leading edge. Later images will present a smooth surface, but these views preserve the construction beneath it. Their value is documentary as well as visual: they show the arrangement of the actual assembly at this stage of the project, without substituting a generic drawing or another aircraft.
Recorded 31 October 2022.
Fabric changes the form
Covering changes the visual character of the restoration. The open framework becomes a recognizable aerodynamic surface, while its ribs remain legible beneath the cloth. The album captures intermediate states rather than only the finished result: fabric lying loose, edges being worked, and surfaces beginning to tighten into shape. Those intermediate photographs give the finished wing its context. They show how much of the work occurs before color becomes the most noticeable feature.
Recorded 1 November 2022.
Stitches, tapes & openings
Close photographs carry a different kind of progress from the wide workshop views. They record the lines of attachment, reinforcing tapes, access openings, and the careful treatment of protruding fittings. These details will be easy to overlook once the airplane is assembled, yet they occupy many pages of the original album. This story keeps them close enough to see, with their source numbers intact so that each detail can be found again in the companion album index.
Recorded 27 January 2023.
Layers of finish
The photographic record moves through reddish intermediate surfaces, pale coatings, and reflective silver finishes. The changing appearance makes the patient sequence visible without requiring every image to represent a separate milestone. Several pictures record the same assembly from different angles or at closely spaced stages. The photographs here are arranged to make those changes readable. Exact material specifications and application schedules should be taken from the work records, rather than inferred from color alone.
Recorded 2 April 2023.
Small surfaces, long hours
The smaller flying surfaces deserve their own pages. Their outlines are simpler to hold in one photograph, but the album shows the same attention to edges, attachment points, openings, and coatings. A finished surface is the outcome of many local decisions. By keeping close details alongside the overall form, this sequence preserves both the object and the work invested in it. It also helps separate the present restoration sequence from the finished surfaces that arrived with the project.
Chapter 04 / Restoration record
The Cockpit Returns
Recorded 23 September 2023.
Two places to fly
The tandem cockpits turn a structural project into a place people can imagine occupying. The album follows panels on benches, seats outside the aircraft, and the gradual return of instruments and controls. Wide views show their relationship to the fuselage; close views preserve the detail. These photographs record the cockpit as it was being assembled, rather than presenting it as a completed or approved installation.
Recorded 25 July 2025.
Faces of the instruments
Instrument faces connect the workshop to the experience of flying the airplane. The archive includes loose instruments, partially populated panels, and increasingly complete cockpit views. Keeping the earlier and later images together makes the change visible without assuming that every instrument is original to 1943. Their identity and serviceability require their own records. In this story they remain part of the restoration story: objects examined, prepared, installed, and photographed along the way.
Recorded 6 October 2023.
Controls & connections
The outer shape of an airplane is only part of its restoration. The album repeatedly returns to the connections within it: levers, rods, cables, brackets, and the places where one motion must become another. These pictures are especially valuable before the covering closes the view. They show the physical relationships of the components at that moment. The sequence records the work in progress; it does not replace functional checks, rigging data, or the signed maintenance record.
Chapter 05 / Restoration record
The Fuselage Takes Shape
Recorded 31 January 2024.
The last open views
By early 2024, the album offers some of its clearest views of the fuselage before covering. Panels and internal components are present, but the underlying structure is still easy to see. These photographs form a bridge between the baseline established in 2021 and the smooth blue body seen later. They preserve what the finished exterior will conceal, and give the next sequence its scale: the change is not only a new color, but an entirely different way of seeing the same aircraft.
Recorded 7 February 2024.
A new skin
The fuselage covering brings a major visual transformation. White fabric extends along the body, follows its curves, and begins to define the spaces around the cockpits. The album records the work from both sides and from the tail, including the hands-on steps at the edges. The earlier open structure remains part of the story even as it disappears from view. What emerges is the familiar shape of the Stearman, still surrounded by tools, supports, and unfinished assemblies.
Recorded 18 May 2024.
Preparing the surface
A large expanse of fabric changes in small increments. The photographs show masking, surface preparation, and successive changes in sheen and color. Look closely and the underlying shape remains readable through each stage. This chapter gives room to an interval that can vanish in a simple before-and-after comparison. The airplane did not move directly from bare tubing to gloss blue; the album preserves the patient work between those two memorable images.
Recorded 15 August 2024.
Metal, fit & finish
Separate panels and shaped metal pieces appear throughout the archive. Seen on benches and supports, they can look remote from the airplane; installed, they help complete its lines. These photographs retain both views of the work. They show individual pieces before they disappear into the overall shape, and hands making adjustments while access is still open. The visual record is especially rich in these apparently small tasks, where progress is measured in fit rather than in size.
Recorded 18 September 2024.
A place for the pilot
Seats are among the most personal objects in the aircraft. Earlier images show bare metal and the seat structure inside the fuselage; later photographs show the black upholstery and armrest details. Set against the technical density of the cockpit, the finished seat is a quiet reminder of the person who will eventually occupy it. This sequence records that change while leaving the final installation and acceptance to the continuing restoration record.
Chapter 06 / Restoration record
Blue & Yellow
Recorded 23 April 2025.
Color arrives
Blue changes the way the project reads at a glance. The fuselage now has a visual relationship to the yellow surfaces that were already part of the project and to the additional surfaces moving through finish. The 2025 photographs show the new exterior indoors, on a trailer, and outside in daylight. They are a milestone in appearance, while the exposed forward structure and remaining detached assemblies make clear that substantial assembly work continued.
Recorded 12 July 2025.
The tail comes together
The yellow horizontal surfaces and the striped rudder give the rear of the aircraft its familiar character. Close views show attachment points and linkages; wider views place the tail in relation to the blue fuselage. Some finished components were already present at acquisition, so their appearance here is credited as assembly and later project progress, not automatically as new manufacture or new finishing by Retro-Aero. The history of each part remains more specific than the date of a photograph.
Recorded 10 July 2025.
Panels around the cockpit
The cockpit surrounds and forward panels bring separate pieces into a coherent exterior. The album follows them on supports, in close detail, and alongside the aircraft. A painted panel is not the end of its story: it must still meet its neighboring parts and permit access to the systems inside. These photographs keep the panel work connected to the practical assembly that follows it, rather than allowing the shine of the finish to stand for completion.
Chapter 07 / Restoration record
Powerplant & Systems
Recorded 17 June 2025.
The radial-engine chapter
The powerplant sequence is one of the most detailed parts of the archive. It includes engines and components on stands, preparation around the firewall, and installation work at the nose. These 2025 photographs document an earlier stage than the later 2026 engine sequence. They should not be read as proof that the same engine remained in place throughout. This story preserves the dated stages; engine identity, configuration changes, and approvals require the corresponding logbook entries.
Recorded 29 July 2025.
Behind the cylinders
The engine draws the eye, but the surrounding installation fills many of the album pages. Tubes, hoses, brackets, accessories, and access panels occupy the space between the engine and the airframe. The close photographs are a reminder that assembly is a system of relationships. A wide portrait of the aircraft cannot show them all. Here the details have their own space, with dates retained so that the 2025 configuration is not confused with later changes.
Chapter 08 / Restoration record
The People In The Work
Recorded 26 January 2023.
A shared restoration
The restoration belongs to Dale and Lynn, and the photographs show a wider circle of people sharing its work and its milestones. Some images are technical records; others preserve a smile, a pause, or a moment of discovery. Both belong in this story. Retro-Aero identifies Waldo Wright's Flying Service in Winter Haven, Florida, as the guiding workshop for the project begun in 2021. The people pictured across the album are credited collectively where individual names or task responsibilities are not documented.
Recorded 4 November 2025.
The work between milestones
The late-2025 photographs return to the wings, the worktables, and the people around them. Painted surfaces are handled and prepared, dark walk areas appear in close views, and the cockpits become places to sit and look forward. These are useful reminders that restoration continues after the most dramatic changes in appearance. The inherited upper-wing completion remains credited to the earlier effort; later handling or finishing details shown here belong to the continuing project record.
Chapter 09 / Restoration record
The 2026 Chapter
Recorded 2 March 2026.
A new engine sequence
The 2026 photographs introduce another distinct engine sequence: a powerplant on a stand, transport and handling, and the aircraft outside with the engine at its nose. A July album caption identifies parts of an R680 installation. These dated photographs are presented together, separate from the 2025 views. The visual record shows progress, but does not by itself establish overhaul status, serial-number continuity, or the full reason for the configuration change. Those details remain with the engine and airframe records.
Recorded 3 August 2026.
The propeller is hung
The July 2026 album caption announces a recognizable milestone: the propeller is hung. Photographs show the propeller separately and then at the front of the aircraft, followed by close views of the installation and surrounding panels. The overall silhouette moves another step toward the intended airplane. This story records this as visible assembly progress. It does not infer an engine run, completed testing, or a return to flight from the installed propeller alone.
Recorded 16 September 2026.
Connecting the systems
The newest September sequence concentrates on the connections that make the larger assemblies work together. Album captions identify engine controls, fuel lines, oil-system work, P-leads, and propeller-governor details. The photographs move from broad views behind the engine to individual lines and brackets. Their density is part of the story: late-stage progress can be substantial while remaining almost invisible in a distant photograph. These photographs bring that close work into view.
Recorded 18 September 2026.
Windscreens make it real
The album's 18 September caption reads, "Windows make it more real!" The sequence shows windscreen assemblies on the bench and then mounted around the cockpit openings. It is a small set of images with a large visual effect: the cockpit begins to look ready for a person to occupy it in the intended environment. The newest photographs still belong to a restoration in progress, but they give a clear sense of how far the project has come from the open fuselage of 2021.
Chapter 10 / Restoration record
To The Present
Recorded 22 September 2026.
The next small thing
The September closing photograph is not a grand unveiling. It is a close view of a primer control, accompanied by a comment about an old screw. That is a fitting place to pause a restoration book: even after the wings, fabric, paint, cockpit, engine, and propeller, the work can still come down to one small part. The original book edition closed with the album as reviewed on 23 September 2026; the October update above continues that record. The return to flight remains ahead; the record of the work continues.
The latest chapter / October 2026
The airplane takes shape.
The work continues.
The October photographs show both sets of wings installed, the engine and propeller together, and illuminated position lights. The restoration continues with the small assemblies and details that bring the larger airplane together.
The current goal is to complete restoration in December 2026, with flying and training for the airshow experience hoped to begin in January 2027.
See the October progressSupport Aviation TrainingExplore the airshowThe record behind the story
Photographs, records & credit.
Adapted from N52088: Restoration Book Through September 2026. The original online selection follows the same ten chapters using 34 photographs from the project album. A six-photograph October update extends that story. Original photo numbers match the book’s companion catalog; the October additions are captioned by date.
Photography and dates
Photographs: the Stearman Restoration 2027 shared album, supplied by the project. The book’s archive review covered 1,384 photographs and 78 video entries; video poster frames are distinct from reviewed video footage. This page uses still photographs.
The original edition was reviewed on 23 September 2026 and includes photographs recorded through 22 September 2026. The online update was reviewed on 8 October 2026 and adds photographs recorded on 6–7 October 2026. Dates are the album’s recorded capture dates, not independent certification of when a task was completed. Some album entries are retrospective copies.
Historical sources and limits
- FAA registration file: government disposal and civil ownership transfers, including the 1946 bill of sale, the 2013 Yesteryear Aviation transfer, and the 6 August 2021 bill of sale.
- FAA airworthiness file: agricultural equipment, spray-system work, and the 1965 engine and airframe configuration. These historical documents do not establish the current configuration or approval status.
- Army serial research: 16th Flying Training Detachment historical compilation (PDF). The original wartime service record remains incomplete.
Photographs document visible progress. They do not substitute for maintenance records, inspections, testing, or approval for flight.
Project and inherited-work acknowledgments
Dale and Lynn’s project began in 2021 under the guidance of Waldo Wright’s Flying Service in Winter Haven, Florida. Workshop participants are credited collectively where individual names and responsibilities are not documented.
The aircraft was acquired already disassembled. The upper wings were completed before acquisition. That earlier work belongs to the prior restoration effort. Later photographs of handling, assembly, and detail work do not transfer credit for the inherited completion.