O-2A Skymaster

[Matt_S]

Any ideas on this one?  I had been thinking about one for covert/clandestine flights.


Matt 

[Archangel]

Good Question. Its not a big plane like the OV-10 so if your using it for covert ops your only going to get 2-3 people in it besides the pilot. If there is anything it would be good for then covert ops would be it as long as you had some kind of ECM gear that could keep it from being seen and probably night vison capablity.

[Shasper]

Could ditch the rear engine & add a throw-away clamshell.

Shas

[tinlail]

Lots of real life stuff with this re-engine the plane.

Remove the front engine and enlarge the cabin
http://www.skymaster.org.uk/spectrum.asp

Remove the Rear engine and enlarge the cabin
http://www.air-and-space.com/conroy.htm

I am fond of the push pull configuration. So I am not super attracted to either concept.
A suggestion that just occurred to me is to put floats on it with the struts not only going to the fuselage but also up to the wing vertically. I don't really have a picture of how that should look it just occurred to me that floats could directly inline with the tail booms.

[PanzerWulff]

I'm building one with retractable landing gear and adding surveilence gear for anti drug interdiction
"Panzer"

[Shasper]

IIRC the Cessna 337 (O-2) is a retract bird already . . . now if anyone feels adventurous, make a fixed gear bird with big ol' tires & add high lift devices for a bush plane!

Shas

[Weaver]

How about removing the forward engine and fitting a helo cockpit, say off a Gazelle, to increase vision for the FAC role? The rear engine could be either replaced by a turbo-prop, or, in the in-line-twin spirit of the original, BOTH piston engines could be at the back, driving contraprops.

[rallymodeller]

You could make it a covert-insertion aircraft by combining the idea Shas had with paddle-blade props and modified engine cowliongs -- say it's an outgrowth of the Lockheed Q-Star project and is virtually silent.

Funny this should come up, as I'm watching one on Ebay right now...

[jcf]

IIRC the Cessna 337 (O-2) is a retract bird already . . . now if anyone feels adventurous, make a fixed gear bird with big ol' tires & add high lift devices for a bush plane!

Shas

The original 336 Skymaster is a fixed gear aircraft.


Good ol' 337 Skymaster, as an A & P friend once quipped "never was an aircraft more appropriately numbered".

Jon

[PanzerWulff]

"never was an aircraft more appropriately numbered".

Jon

I don't get it 
"Panzer"

[Mossie]

Put the personal in EXINT style pods.  The concept was most recentley touted by the company Avpro & mocked up on a Harrier & Apache.  It's not entirely new I think the Germans had something similar in WWII for casualty evac & somebody in the RAF proposed "bodybags", sacks that hooked over the cannon on Spitfires so that they could take their ground crews on deployment, not suprisingly no-one was willing to test it!

[PR19_Kit]

Just recently I saw a photo of a Fairey Barracuda with monster pods under both wings.

Each one was designed to carry two paratroops with full gear lying prone and apparently they dropped themselves from the pod over the DZ. It didn't say if they actually tried it, but it's difficult to imagine a more uncomfortable way to go to war!

[philp]

Still planning a RW Rhodesian version of this bird with the .30 machine gun pods above the fuselage and frangible bombs.

[Weaver]

Just recently I saw a photo of a Fairey Barracuda with monster pods under both wings.

Each one was designed to carry two paratroops with full gear lying prone and apparently they dropped themselves from the pod over the DZ. It didn't say if they actually tried it, but it's difficult to imagine a more uncomfortable way to go to war!

Wasn't there a Stuka with large overwing pods - same idea?

[PR19_Kit]

Wasn't there a Stuka with large overwing pods - same idea?

I think you're 100% correct. The Stuka pods were even larger than the Barracuda ones, looked like airhip engine pods perched onto top of the wings!

Why can you NEVER find pics of things like this when you need to........?