FACES & PLACES
LOCAL COLOR JULY 2006
 The Cannibal Queen
by Marilyn Bullock
The air is warm and,
thankfully, not too muggy this beautiful Father’s
Day evening. My stomach is in knots as I drive from
my home in New Hope to a small
grass airstrip just outside of Doylestown. I am on
my way to take a ride on The Cannibal Queen, a beautifully
restored bi-plane owned by Jim Lonergan of Doylestown,
PA.
Jim has me sit in the forward cockpit. I don the canvas
helmet that has a built in headset so we can communicate
once we are up in the air. Between the slipstream and
the engine noise, discussion would be virtually impossible
otherwise.
Perhaps because I took flying lessons 25 yeas ago
(yikes!) Jim lets me fly the plane once we are up in
the air. But first, I take a few photos of my house
in New Hope. Then, I stow my camera . Now, the plane
is mine. What can I say? Pure heaven!
 The Cannibal Queen is
smooth - a joy to fly. This is “seat of your
pants” flying
- no flaps, no stall horn, no yoke - just Jim and
I in an open
cockpit, a hickory stick for steering and a few key
instruments. Due to the pitch of the plane and the
overhead wings, it is very difficult to see where we
are going. We have to constantly zig-zag across the
sky to see where we are and to make sure there are
no other aircraft in the area.
The Cannibal Queen is
a World War II Stearman biplane. In 1927 Lloyd Stearman
founded the Stearman Aircraft
Company, which manufactured bi-planes out of Venice,
Ca. The Steaman bi-plane is credited with the popularity
of aviation in the 1930s, it having been used for “barnstorming” and “wing
walking.” Today, it is still one of the most
popular airplanes ever introduced to aviation history.
In the 1940s Stearmans were
used by the United States military as training aircraft
for novice pilots. The
Stearman Aircraft Company eventually branched off into
what is known today as Boeing.
Along with 300 other
bi-planes, the Cannibal Queen was built in the summer
of 1942 to be used as a primary
trainer for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Later that
year the US Army purchased the plane and The Cannibal
Queen served her country for the remainder of the War.
She then spent over thirty years as an agricultural
spray plane before being lovingly restored in 1987.
New York Times best selling novelist, Steven Coonts,
based his non-fiction book, The Cannibal Queen, on
three glorious months that he spent exploring America
from her cockpit in the summer of 1991.
 Oh, did I mention
that the Stearman bi-plane is also and acrobatic plane?
To do aggressive acrobatic moves,
the plane needs to be at about 3000 feet. We were only
at 1500 feet. Still, I was willing to see what it could
do. Jim took over the controls and took us into a 30
degree climb and then pushed the stick forward into
a 30 degree dive – kind of like being on a roller
coaster 1500 feet above the earth’s surface!
Whee! I loved it all and was very sad when my half
hour ride was over.
To be sure, I am saving up for another flight – at
least a full hour the next time. Thank you, Cannibal
Queen, for an experience I will be talking about for
a long time!
For more information, go to www.biplaneridesoverphiladelphia.com
or call 1-800-247-2371.
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