Just like the one he used to teach pilots

By Gerald Lush
Hardin County Magazine

John Raptis with his World War II era Stearman PT-18 (Gerald Lush)John Raptis drives to the Elizabethtown airport almost every day - not to fly, but to work on the airplane that he will pilot.

Raptis, who will turn 90 in January, is rebuilding a Stearman PT-18, a biplane used in World War II as a military trainer. Based at Morton Air Academy, Blythe, Calif., Raptis used similar airplanes to teach Army Air Corps pilots to fly during the war.