A wonderful variety of flying machines built during the last century

Air Classics, Mar 2002 by O'Leary, Michael

Opening day ceremonies for the Union Air Terminal, Burbank, California, had what was probably the majority of Army Air Corps aircraft in southern California on display. Included were various Douglas observation types, Boeing P-1 2s, Curtiss P-6s, and Keystone LB-7 bombers in the foreground. The Keystone would not have been out of place in World War One. A number of different LB (Light Bomber) variants were constructed by Keystone including 18 LB-7s built between 1928-29. These aircraft were powered by Pratt & Whitney R- 1690-3 Hornets.

The Thomas-Morse Company had long been a proponent of all-metal aircraft construction but only achieved success in 1928 when the military ordered 180 0-19s. These observation aircraft featured the type of metal construction that Thomas-Morse had been championing since 1919 - wrap-around corrugated sheet metal. The flying surfaces were of metal construction with fabric covering, otherwise the plane was pretty conventional and was produced in nine different variants. Power for the 0-19B came from a P&W R-1340-7 radial of 450-hp. Note the nifty mesh wire gravel guards over the tires.

After the end of the war, the US Army and US Air Force contracted with Aeronca for the L-16 which was basically a military variant of the post-war civil Model 7BC. Aeronca built 509 L-16As fitted with the Continental 0- 1907 o1 engine of 85-hp and 100 L- I6Bs with the Continental 0-205-1 of 90-hp and a large dorsal fin. Of the original order for L-16As, 376 went to National Guard units and in the mid-I 950s hundreds of L-16s were allocated to the Civil Air Patrol. This photograph shows a fully killed-out 1956 Ford station wagon operated by the CAP with one of the L-16s. After CAP use, many of the L-16s were sold on the civilian market.