Los Banos Rotary Club History
Rotarians See New Inland Boeings

Members of the Los Banos Rotary Club were given an “on the job” demonstration of the new Boeing dusting and liquid spray airplanes at the municipal airport Tuesday noon as guests of Rotarian Lloyd Stearman.
Stearman, vice president of the Inland Aviation Co. and designer of the special purpose plane, showed the Rotary group through the company’s temporary workshop and explained various features of the plane’s construction and operation.

Later, Chief Pilot George Willet gave an actual demonstration of airplane dusting and spraying as it is done under actual working conditions, and climaxed the air show with a bit of sky writing with the duster plane, using lime as the dusting material.

Stearman said that his company’s construction work has been badly handicapped so far because of extremely limited working space, but that they expected their new hanger and work shop to be ready within the next few weeks, at which time their personnel will be increased considerably to handle construction for which the company has already contracted. He stated that he and his company were indeed happy to be located in Los Banos and looked forward to the day when their business would be an important factor in the community’s business life.

Preceding the demonstration at the airport, the Rotarians heard Dr. Leon C. Glover, entomologist at the Shell Oil Co.’s new agricultural laboratory at Modesto, tell of the work and effort that is now being concentrated in the development of new agricultural insecticides and sprays and of their role in the agricultural development in this area. Dr. Glover also praised the work being done by Stearman and other aviation engineers in designing special aviation equipment to do the job.

June 11, 1946

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