2-839-750 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Two-seat, dual controls open-cockpit biplane with steel tube frame, spruce wing spars, aluminum ribs, all fabric covered; with Kinner K5 100 hp engine. The Fleet Model 2 was a primary flight trainer at the Roosevelt Aviation School, Long Island, New York, one of the leading civilian aviation schools in the U.S. in the 1930s. It was one of ten Fleet aircraft owned by Roosevelt Field, out of about 350 Fleet aircraft built between 1929 and 1942. Hundreds of student pilots received instruction in this Fleet at Roosevelt Field or later in Pennsylvania in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, which provided pilots for military service during World War II. Designed by Major Reuben Fleet as a smaller version of the military PT-3 trainer, the compact and relatively inexpensive Fleet was the first aircraft specifically designed for the civilian flight training market. In September 1979, Eugene Breiner, an FAA Principal Airworthiness Inspector, purchased NC8689 and restored it to its 1939 Roosevelt Field trainer configuration. In 1985, Breiner’s Plane Jane, so named because it was a just a plain simple airplane, returned to flying status.