"The Vietnam War required us to emphasize the national interest rather than abstract principles. What President Nixon and I tried to do was unnatural. And that is why we didn't make it."
- Henry Kissinger, reflecting on his involvement in the Vietnam War
The Cessna L-19/O-1 Bird Dog is a liaison and observation aircraft. It was the first all metal fixed wing aircraft ordered for and by the United States Army, since the U.S. Army Air Force separated from the army in 1947, becoming its own branch of service, U.S. Air Force. The Bird Dog had a lengthy career in the U.S. military as well as in other countries.
The U.S. Army was searching for an aircraft that could adjust artillery fire, as well as perform liaison duties, and preferably be constructed of all metal, as the canvas covered Liaison airplanes used during World War II (primarily Stinson and Piper products) had a short service life. The US Army issued the specification for a two-seat liaison and observation monoplane and the Cessna Aircraft Company submitted the Cessna Model 305A a development of the Cessna 170. The Cessna 305A was a single-engined light-weight strut-braced high-wing monoplane with a tailwheel landing gear. The greatest difference from the Cessna 170 was that the 305A only had two seats, in tandem configuration (the only tandem-seat plane that Cessna ever produced), with angled side windows to improve ground observation. Other differences included a re-designed rear fuselage, providing a view directly to the rear (a feature later dubbed "Omni-View" and carried to Cessna single-engine planes after 1964), and transparent panels in the wings' center-section (similar to those found on the Cessna 140 and the later Cessna 150 Aerobat model), which allowed the pilot to look directly overhead. A wider door was fitted to allow a stretcher to be loaded.
The U.S. Army awarded a contract to Cessna for 418 aircraft which was designated the L-19A Bird Dog. The prototype Cessna 305 (registration N41694) first flew on 14 December 1949. Deliveries began in December 1950 and the aircraft was soon in use fighting its first war in Korea from 1950 through 1953. An instrument trainer variant was developed in 1953, later versions had constant-speed propellers and the final version the L-19E had a larger gross weight. Cessna produced 3,431 aircraft which was also built under license by Fuji in Japan.
The L-19 received the name Bird Dog as a result of a contest held with Cessna employees to name the aircraft. The winning entry, submitted by Jack A. Swayze, an industrial photographer, was selected by a U.S. Army board.[citation needed] The name was chosen because the role of the army's new airplane was to find the enemy and orbit overhead until artillery (or attack aircraft) could be brought to bear on the enemy. While flying low and close to the battlefield, the pilot would observe the exploding shells and adjust the fire via his radios, in the manner of a bird dog (Gun dog) used by game hunters. Ship Date: 2010.
Dimensions:
Wingspan: 6 inches
Length: 4.25 inches
Release Date: ?
Historical Account: "Flight to Freedom" - On April 29th, 1975, South Vietnamese Air Force Major Bung-Ly loaded his wife and five children into a two-seat Cessna O-1 Bird Dog and took off from Con Son Island. After evading Viet Cong arms fire, Major Bung-Ly headed out to sea and spotted the USS Midway aircraft carrier. With only an hour of fuel remaining, he dropped a note asking that the "runway" [sic] be cleared so that he could land. Knowing there was no room for this to happen, Rear Admiral Lawrence Chambers ordered that $10 million worth of Huey UH-1 helicopters be pushed overboard into the South China Sea. The Bird Dog that Major Bung-Ly landed is now on display at the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida. |
