What is this plane? #8

[howardwhite 5]

This one may be one of a kind.
The photographer, looking up, is someone most people here will know at least by name. Some of you may know the jumper in the "door."
The plane is currently registered to an owner in the northwest. Wonder if he lets jumpers use it.

HW

[grimmie 175]

Ray Cottingham/Jim Wallace?????
just a shot in the dark, looks like SoCal maybe....

By the way, i love all the posts you do on this stuff!!!!

[rapter 0]

Cessna 337 super skymaster Conroy Stolifter

Only the good die young, so I have found immortality,

[howardwhite 5]

I'm impressed.I had already found that picture on the Goleta Air Museum site.
Guesses about the people? Or location?

HW

[howardwhite 5]

Those not familiar with the Cessna 337 ("Mixmaster," "Skysmasher"...) may not appreciate what a radical conversion this was.
The 337 is normally a twin (see pic) with front and rear piston engines; the "centerline thrust" design is intended to deal with the control issues that result from an engine failure on a normal twin. So a 337 is not normally a jump plane (anyone ever jump one, presumably with the rear engine shut down?)
In this conversion, the front engine was replaced by a Garrett turboprop and the rear engine by a cargo pod. Wonder how much that cost and who thought it was a good idea.
Oh, by the way, the picture was published in Parachutist in June, 1969. The plane was flying over Santa Barbara, CA. The jumper about to exit is Bob Hughes and the photographer in freefall is Bob Sinclair.
HW

[poppenhager 1]

It must have been a 336 since it has fixed gear,unless that was part of the mods.I thought it was a good idea except at the time there many other new aircraft being built that would do a better job,Fairchild Porter,Helio Stallion,etc.POP

Quote

• Quote

[howardwhite 5]

Pop
The web site for the Goleta Air Museum (source for the ground picture) says:
"Conroy also created a single engine turboprop conversion of Cessna 337 Super Skymaster, N1414G called the Stolifter. The rear engine was deleted and the forward engine was replaced with a 575-shaft horsepower Garrett AiResearch TPE 331-25A turboprop. The fuselage was extended to nearly double the volume available for cargo. The short take-off characteristics of the Stolifter were improved by the incorporation of a Robertson Aircraft Corporation high-lift system. This picture was taken on June 12, 1974."

By the way, the engine is the same one used on CASA 212s.

HW

[bozo 0]

It seems somewhere I read that the Cessna Skymaster was developed for military applications that required a twin engine configuration.
I saw one in very poor shape at the old North Las Vegas airport in the late 70s that was in military trim with a radio operators station in the rear and hard points for weapons...believe it or not.

bozo
Pain is fleeting. Glory lasts forever. Chicks dig scars.

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

Oddly enough, I have even seen one in person with the FRONT engine removed and a huge electronics pod up front in it's place. I can't recall if it was a NOAA plane or a Coast Guard plane, but it was really odd looking.

Chuck

[NickDG 23]

I'm not sure it was designed purely for the military market. I do know it was marketed to civilians as a twin without the problems of asymmetrical thrust, like traditional twins exhibit, should an engine fail.

But, like most novel things in aviation they invented a new problem . . .

On takeoff, depending on how it was loaded, it wouldn't climb well, or sometimes not at all, with the rear engine out. This caused two issues. I've taxied a 337 around just on the front engine when working on one, and sometimes a pilot will do the same intending to start the rear engine in the run-up area. But sitting in the cockpit you get the "impression" you're in a single engine aircraft and someone new to the aircraft could simply forget to start the other engine.

Another issue is if the rear engine fails on the take off roll the pilot might notice it and continue on into the airport fence. Due to all this Cessna changed to T/O procedure by saying you must advance the rear engine first, to ensure it was running, and then bring up the front engine . . .

NickD BASE 194

[piper17 1]

The Cessan Skymaster was used in RVN as a FAC aircraft with the designation O-2. I think it was to replace the O-1 Birddog which was a single engine aircraft. I think the O-1 was a military version of the Cessna 170.

I would expect that it did have hard points for mounting rockets used for marking ground targets to be hit by fighters/bombers providing close air support to troops in contact on the ground etc.

"A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition"...Rudyard Kipling

[Seamonkey 0]

Piper17 you are correct with the mil des on the O-2. In fact the army still maintains two O-2s at Yuma Proving Grounds AZ. They use them for radio relay and other testing.

sea

[JSBIRD 1]

Quote

I think the O-1 was a military version of the Cessna 170.

Altthough it was loosely based on the Cessna 170, and shared many parts, the military version O1, was known as a Cessna 305 in civilian circles.

BASE359

"Now I've settled down,
in a quiet little town,
and forgot about everything"

[377 21]

I saw a similar plane at Skydive Monterey Bay CA's airport (Marina CA) about 5 years ago. It was, as I recall, a 337 with only a single pusher engine and a huge electronics filled extended nose. It was doing contract work for a government agency I was told. looked very strange but did a spirited takeoff and climbout. I like weird planes. The Carvair we jumped at WFFC (Fat Annie) was sure an odd duck, a double decked DC 4. Looked like a mini 747 with four props.

2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

[jimp 1]

Ed O'Brien owned a 337 (N2617F) that was used for skydiving on St. Thomas, USVI on a fairly regular basis. I have a couple of jumps from it, the aft engine was not shut down.

I asked about this before the first jump naturally, but the boys just said "Nah, don't worry about it, we've done it lots of times".

The dropzone was on Morningstar Beach, right in front of the bar. So we usually made only one jump per day.

[howardwhite 5]

Ed O'Brien was a frequent visitor to the Pepperell, MA, DZ before his death a few years ago. Fran Strimenos, the DZO, was one of his students in the VI before moving to New England. Pepperell was doing some housekeeping the other day, and one of Ed's really old rigs, a red piggyback which I couldn't identify, was on the floor. It had a PC in it.
As to the 337, I talked to a friend/Otter pilot last week. He recalled a jumper/pilot in the Albany, NY area years ago who owned a 337 and used it for demo jumps. He shut down the rear engine on jump run (and often left it off on his return to the airport.)

HW

[riggerrob 558]

The military version - of Cessna's 337 Skymaster - was developed after the civilian 336 (fixed gear) and 337 (retractable gear).

The Cessna O-2 was developed as an artillery spotter/forward air controller for the Viet Nam War. The military version had dozens of modifications, including more windows in the doors, and a back seat full of radios. They also had rocket racks under the wings and more antennas than you can count.

[lurch 0]

Glad you guys posted this, I think I just got an opportunity to get high altitude in the Philippines out of a Skymaster and had my doubts about exiting with an engine behind the door. I was hoping I'd find somebody with stories about jumping these things. I'll probably ask the pilot to shut down that rear engine if I want to launch a wingsuit though- that rear engine just scares me.
-B

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.