never a military aircraft, but there was the elegant Beechcraft Starship twin engine pusher.
Posted on 05/22/2019 5:24:32 PM PDT by free_life
I'll second that. For me, the front landing gear was the giveaway. That's standard Beechcraft gear.
never a military aircraft, but there was the elegant Beechcraft Starship twin engine pusher.
Saw a Mohawk shot down just over the DMZ. He was dropping flash bombs in a string, apparently taking photographs at night and the fifth or sixth flash was him blowing up.
There was also an OV-10, which was similar.
This was back in the 70’s when I had a 1955 310. Only had 100 gals. Coming back from Canada I noticed my right engine lost Oil pressure, so I shut it down and landed at PDX. My home strip was about 40 miles away and was a 2000 foot grass. So I checked the engine oil level a little low but OK, so I added some 40 wt oil. I wanted to get my plane home, and since I was by myself, and low on fuel I was at least 800 lbs below gross. So I started up both engines and left the right on at idle, got clearance to TO on a 8,000 for runway. Slowly brought up power on left (critical) Kept the right at idle. Got up to minimum single engine control lifted off and climbed at about 500/min. got home. turns out the oil pump had died.
The one you’re thinking of is the O-2A. It replaced the O-1/L-19 Bird Dog in ‘67 as the Bird dog was too slow and susceptible to ground fire and the OV-10 which was specifically built for the Forward Air Control mission was not yet available. They continued to be used till the war ended, mostly in country and to some extent in Cambodia/Laos, primarily as night birds because they could use the night vision scope out the window.
The fixed base operator told me about a Twin Comanche that did the same thing at his airport.
The kicker is that his airport was Asheville, NC.
Unreal.
I am a firm believer that whenever you operate outside of the owner’s handbook, you are a test pilot.
I don’t care for the odds.
But it’s painted like an L-23 Seminole.
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/l23seminoleregistry/l23seminoleregistry.html
Looks like its designation during the war was U-8.
Found this while browsing. Pretty interesting.
Flikr’s down for maintenance.
Here’s it’s spitting image with engines.
https://www.airliners.net/photo/USA-Army/Beech-U-8F-Seminole-Excalibur-65/106201
“I did a one engine TO in my 310. and made it.”
Wow, you passed the test.
Cessna Skymaster I think.
Actually that photo looks like a 421 or a Crusader, both Cesnas. Nice planes both.
There used to be a gorgeous Twin Beech at the Benson AZ airport several years ago. One of the most beautiful airplanes on wings IMHO.
They weaponized it in Rhodesia and called it the Lynx.
Saw your Rhodesian comment after I posted mine.
OV-10 was some bird and still used by some militaries effectively.
Marines even tested a couple with upgraded avionics in combat 5-6 years ago.
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