Reprinted from Air Corps News Letter, March 15, 1940.
“Emulation of our seniors,” says the News Letter Correspondent at the Ryan School of Aeronautics, San Diego, Calif., “had always seemed a pretty good adage that has paid certain appreciable dividends in our flying progress at Ryan School.
“We are now facing a very critical situation, with the appearance of the Air Corps’ latest in equipment. The first model of the Ryan YO-51 ‘Dragonfly’ has been grasshoppering in our midst and is doing things that have reduced our carefully nurtured conceptions of how an airplane flies to a pile of ashes.
“As one confused flying cadet puts it, ‘l was coming in for a landing and the first thing I knew I passed under some shade that shouldn’t have been there. I looked up and saw the “Dragonfly” about a thousand feet above me but I knew he couldn’t get into the field as high as he was so I came on in and landed. When I looked back after my landing roll, there was the darn contraption sitting on the ground about 200 yards behind me. By the time I got back to the line the “Dragonfly” was floating around at 1000 feet again. Sometimes I get discouraged.’
“They tell us the plane is an experimental design for liaison and short range observation. Well, I’d hate to be a doughboy cause I suspect the YO will not be long in getting itself nicknamed the ‘Peeping Tom.’
“I can well imagine the consternation of Private Smith who sits down for a smoke when he’s supposed to be laying a phone line and hears a stentorian ‘On your feet, soldier!’ from overhead and looks up to see his C.O. leaning over the side of a motionless ‘Peeping Tom.’
“We don’t know what the performance figures are and we don’t crave enlightenment for having seen it, we still think it’s a lie. The printed word would only further confuse our waning confidence in what we’d always considered to be at least an average pair of eyes.”
Air Corps News Letter – Issued by the Office of the Air Corps (Information Division), War Department, Washington (Munitions Building, Washington, D.C.). Vol. XXIII, March 15, 1940, No. 6, page 4.
| Plane | Min Flying Speed (m.p.h.) | Top Speed (m.p.h.) | Speed Ratio | Takeoff over 50 Foot Obstacle | Landing over 50 Foot Obstacle | Weight (mtow) & H.P. | Slots | Flaps | Ailerons |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stinson L-1 (O-49) | 36 | 129 | 3.6 | 3400/295 | Handley Page leading edge slats | full-span, partial slotted | drooping | ||
| Bellanca YO-50 | 126 | 3887/420 | |||||||
| Piper PA-18 Super Cub | 44 | 153 | 3.5 | 500 | 725 | 1750/150 | none | partial | conventional slotted |