National Stearman Fly-In – Day 5

These colored strips of cloth on the N-strut of this Stearman biplane are campaign ribbons of a sort. A ribbon is tied on the N-strut of each new arrival at the National Stearman Fly-In at Galesburg, IL, Municipal Airport so the parking crews don’t have to stop the plane after subsequent landings. Because many pilots leave the ribbons on their planes, and only red was used for many years, some confusion resulted. Changing colors every year has eliminated that.

Photo: Robert Harrison, National Stearman Fly-In