The Stinson L-5 was the only purpose-built L-bird and the second most widely used liaison aircraft in WWII. It was rugged and powerful. The L-5 was called the Flying Jeep as it could perform many of the same duties.
The Aeronca L-3 joined similar Grasshopper-types in spotting, directing artillery fire, transport, short-range reconnaissance, and training. Some served in North Africa for the Free French Forces.
The Taylorcraft L-2 was an observation and reconnaissance aircraft built for U.S. Army Ground and Air Forces in WWII. L-2s were powered by a 65-horsepower engines and served stateside for training operations.
Disaster off Casablanca: Air Observation Posts in Operation Torch and the Role of Failure in Institutional Innovation Includes excerpts from the article in Air Power History, Fall 2002, by Edgar Frank Raines, Jr. Both failure and success sometimes lie in the coordinated and spontaneous actions of individuals and the totality of their organization. This is…
San Antonio Express-News, Sunday, April 4, 1993, by Susan Yerkes. To some, history is what you find in a high-school textbook. To others, it is fading memories. But to Bob Hood, P.D. Straw, Baylor Randle, Bill Houston, Earl Collins and the other men of the Alamo Liaison Squadron, history is a living, soaring, winged thing…
Part 2, 1944–1946, by Dr. John W. Kitchens, Aviation Branch Command Historian, U.S. Army Aviation Center, Fort Rucker, AL. Excerpted from Aviation Digest, July/August 1992 The Field Artillery Branch of the Army Ground Forces (AGF) tested aerial observation and fire adjustment from lightweight organic aircraft from 1940 to 1942. The tests led to the establishment…
Excerpted from Sport Aviation magazine, June 1992, by H.G. Frautschy. June 6, 1944. A date that sticks in the minds of many of us as “D-Day,” the day that marked the start of the Allies invasion of Europe during World War II. But for many pilots who flew during the war, June 6th has an…
50th Anniversary of Army Aviation, authored by Major General Dave Robinson. Originally published in United States Army Aviation Digest, May/June 1992. From North Africa to North Korea, from the islands of the South Pacific to the deserts of Southwest Asia, from the plains of Central Europe to the jungles of Indochina, and from the night patrols…
A Branch History of the U.S. Army’s Field Artillery Excerpts from Chapter VIII – Field Artillery in World War II: 1939–1945, by Boyd L. Dastrup Motorized field pieces, the fire direction center, radio equipped forward observers, and technological and organizational developments increased the field artillery’s ability to support the other combat arms as well as…
Excerpted from Army History bulletin, Winter 1990/1991, Eyes in the Sky: A History of Liaison Aircraft and Their Use in World War II by Herbert P. LePore. The nascence of fixed-wing aircraft in a combat milieu took place in the early days of World War I when both the Allied and Central Powers used single-engine…
The early liaison airplanes are being saved. Flying magazine, October 1987, by Gordon Baxter. Down in sunny San Antonio, Texas, the Alamo Liaison Group is the hearty band of enthusiasts that collect, restore and fly these light airplanes that did so much in every theater of the war. The Piper, Taylorcraft, Aeronca and Interstate would…
Hill Country Recorder, September 19, 1984, story and photo (From the back seat of the L-1) by Roger L. Berry. “RETURN WITH US NOW TO THOSE GOLDEN DAYS OF YESTERYEAR….” The men of the Alamo Wing of the Confederate Air Force did just that on the day of the Kendall County Fair Parade. While authentic…
Trade-A-Plane cover, Second September Issue 1984. Flying Liaison Aircraft Museum, “The Alamo Liaison Group.” Photo by Roger Berry.