A nice steady breeze straight down the runway made taking off and landing this little nipper look easy. You can see here that the L-4 is just a Cub with more glass. No armor, same old engine (65-hp Continental in this 1945 "J" model), and no guns, unless you carried one with you.
They were used for taxi ops and battlefield surveillance(Patton often rode in one), medical evacuation, forward air control, artillery spotting, patrol duty... they were even flown off aircraft carriers and even off cables strung alongside large landing craft (yes, they took off -and landed- using a hook atop the wing)!!
And according to the FOF website, someone even mounted bazookas on one once in WWII... what a surprise that must have been:
"Here comes that stupid spotter again; let's take potshots at it... oh, sh*t!!!"
Hard to tell here, but the pilot was forward-slipping while holding altitude... basically flying sideways.
Got to keep a sharp eye out in these parts: Florida's skies are buzzing with buzzards.
Would have been nice to see the Spit or other more impressive type flying, but you could do worse than the venerable L-4- liaison aircraft extraordinaire!
Some neat Grasshopper links- amazing what these humble aircraft did in military service!
http://www.warfoto.com/wild_blue_yonder.htm
http://www.geocities.com/usarmyaviation ... return.htm
Well, that's it from the good ol' FOF until I return again... thanks for looking.
