ELEGANCE WITH WINGS –
1937 STINSON SR-9F RELIANT
Richard A. Rezabek’s 1937 Reliant, NC 18425, is
so carefully restored that it has won two previous
NAHI trophies. It also won this voting contest in- It’s a rare specimen, powered by the same
Pratt & Whitney Wasp Jr. engine that was installed
in 1951, and retaining its original sheet metal,
cowls, wheel pants, fuselage, and landing gear
struts. But the path that led Rezabek to buy this
classic monoplane in 2005 went through one of the
newest and most advanced fighters in the world.
Rezabek was Lockheed Martin’s chief engineer
on its X-35 project from 1992 through 2001. Once
Lockheed Martin was awarded the contract for
what would be designated the F-35 Lightning II,
he chose to spend more time indulging his pas-
sions. In 2002, he got his license to fly and bought
a Stinson Voyager from a retired Navy captain.
His Reliant originally belonged to Katherine
May Edwards, an owner of several Pennsylvania
newspapers who used it to fly around the state to
her various publications. In 1941, she was forced by
the U.S. government to sell it to Wright’s Motion
Pictures of Jamestown, New York, to aid the war
effort, though she would buy it back again after
the end of World War II. By the time Edwards
got it again, it had been owned for several years
by Republic Aircraft, which used it to check out
new test pilots.
Most of what Rezabek knows of his airplane’s
early history comes courtesy of Edwards’ nephew,
Sidney Dickson, who looked him up after he
learned Rezabek had acquired his aunt’s old air-
plane and was eager to share its history.
Rezabek says it remains a showstopper at fly-ins.
“I always let kids sit in the cockpit to try to get them
excited about aviation,” he says. But adult experi-
enced fliers are eager to admire his Reliant too.Richard A.
Rezabek’s Stinson
Reliant belonged for
nearly 30 years to
J. Joney Paul, a
Houston oilman who
was president of the
National Stinson
Club.September 2019 AIR&SPACE 37COURTESY JAMES LAWRENCE