Warbird Information Exchange

About the 336...fixed gear with only 197 built in 1963-64.
It had longer vertical stabilizer ventral fins than the 337 and a narrower horizontal stabilizer among other differences than the more successful 337.
No military use by US or any other country that I've seen.


About the O-2...
Remember the O-2B were 31 unsold civilian aircraft repurchased from dealers by Cessna and modified for psychological warfare with speakers and leaflet dispencers.
The had prop spinners unlike the O-2A, I don't know if the special door and lower front fuselage windows were added.
The B models began deliveries in late March, 1967, a month before the military-equipped A models.
One wonders if they were also used for training since they came first?

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Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
Note political free signature.
I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

From test flights after modding of pushmepullyous @ RSTOL, we determined that if you could read ANY instrument it probably meant you'd lost the rear engine (because you could see the front engine turning) and none of us (including my boss) liked the idea of riding around with 500 lbs of iron mounted behind us @ shoulder height.
Parts of the RSTOL system was included in the French type cert for the 337 (the leading edge cuff and maybe the stall fences but not the interconnected control system), The RSTOL main factory @ KPAE in Everett did mod an O-2 with a full kit and the results were pretty impressive, but the gummint said it was too expensive to implement, soooo, if you're ever cruising the boneyard and come across an O-2 with a leading edge cuff installed---------

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-

And then Robertson played with this.

The full story on the single (rear) engine stol 337 (and interesting details on the 336 and military 337s) can be found in:
Cessna Wings for the World, Vol II, by William D. Thompson a retired Cessna engineer and test pilot.
He relates a crash program (not Cessna but a third party effort) to offer the plane as a gunship to protect mideast oil wells.

Thompson's 3 books are must treading for anyone interested in Cessnas.

_________________
Remember the vets, the wonderful planes they flew and their sacrifices for a future many of them did not live to see.
Note political free signature.
I figure if you wanted my opinion on items unrelated to this forum, you'd ask for it.

Someone was offering a single PT-6 powered pusher 337 with a hinged, extended nose as a low buck bush freighter, I think it wound up @ Mojave with one of the Test Pilot Schools there, recall seeing a photo in an article moons ago-

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Don't make me go get my flying monkeys-