GAINESVILLE, TX - With many small planes flying over Texoma, one aircraft stands out. It’s a rare, WWII Naval biplane that’s 70 years old and still taking to the skies.

Back in the 1930's and 40's, the Navy actually built their own planes. And just a short time before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor the Navy built and trained their cadets on a particular biplane, the N3N-3. With only 816 made and only a dozen still left flying, ne landed right here in Texoma.

"It really, truly is a piece of history here that we need to preserve but I like to share it with other people as well,” said pilot Mike Cavanagh.

At the end of WWI the Navy was very short of airplanes so they started building their own at the Navy yard in Philadelphia. In March of 1940, this particular biplane rolled out of production and into the air.

"The seats you can see has United States Navy cushions. And a lot of this, some of these things are original and some things have been added later,” said Cavanagh as he shows off the cockpit of the plane.

Not much has changed 70 years later, aside from touch ups and a few new modern controls. The markings and colors are exactly as they were in 1940, with a bright green tail indicating the Ranger squadron and a big red ‘1’ showing it was the number one plane.

Cavanagh was a pilot for Delta for 26 years. Now he lives in Lindsey and owns and flies the Cat, as it’s called.

"For me as a pilot, I enjoy it much more. It's more challenging and it's more fun to fly,” he said.

Cavanagh said when he sits in the cockpit he feels a connection to the Naval Aviation Cadets that trained in this very same plane so long ago.

"These were the guys that a couple years later, or a year and a half later, they're out there fighting at the battle of Midway and fighting in the Pacific and doing all the brave things they did,” said Cavanagh.

He explained that in the WWII era, pilots actually flew from the front cockpit instead of the rear. And when the students flew solo, they had to place a 125 lbs of weight in the back seat.

"The first thing you notice about an airplane like this is it's not nearly as easy to fly as the trainers are today, and this was a trainer for brand new pilots,” explained Cavanagh.

But Cavanagh said nothing beats soaring through the air with the wind blowing against your face.

"You're out there with a 360 degree view of the earth and you can look down and just enjoy the beauty of what you're flying over,” he said.

Cavanagh will take anyone who wants to experience the plane's history for a flight. He does charge for it though, and flies out of Gainesville Municipal Airport.