VINTAGE FLYING MACHINES
FLYING MUSEUM
L-2 Taylorcraft
Taylorcraft Model D tandem trainer was "drafted" in 1941 for artillery spotting, light transport and courier service. After the U.S. Army successfully evaluated examples of the aircraft under the designation YO-57 for use in artillery spotting and liaison, 70 were
ordered as the O-57 Grasshopper, powered by a 65hp Continental O-170-3 engine. That order was followed by a modification that added a radio and improved the all-around view with additional glazing to the cockpit area. 336 of that variant, designated O-57A, were ordered.
When American troops went into combat in WWII, the Army Air Force used the O-57/-57A for directing artillery fire on enemy troop and materiel concentrations, much as observation balloons had been used in W.W.I. The O-57, being far more mobile than earlier hot air and gas balloons, was also used for other types of liaison and transport duties, its ability to land and takeoff from small unprepared landing strips making it an ideal front-line vehicle.
140 of the O-57As were ordered in 1942, at which time the two variants were re-
designated L-2 and L-2A, respectively. Subsequent modifications yielded 490 L-2Bs aircraft produced especially for field artillery spotting. Vintage Flying Machines L-2 is a variant with wing spoilers and a completely cowled engine, the L-2M, of which 900 were ordered. Various civilian models of Taylorcraft, in small quantities, were "drafted" into military service with designations from L-2C through L-2L.
253 engineless gliders based on the L-2 design were also manufactured by Taylorcraft
for use as glider trainers. Designated ST-100, they were used primarily by the U. S.
Army to train glider pilots for combat insertions, often behind enemy lines (as, for
example, in the Normandy landings).
Very few if any L-2s made it overseas to combat theaters. Instead they were used for
various within the Continental United States, primarily training. The Museum’s L-2M
USAAF Serial Number 43-23655 was built at the Taylorcraft plant in Alliance, Ohio and
accepted on November 11, 1943. On December 1 st it was delivered to the Civil Air
Patrol ijn Charlotte, North Carolina via stops in Pittsburgh, Altoona, and Hagerstown. It
remained with the North Carolina CAP until being surplused and sold through the
Reconstruction Finance Corporation on July 3, 1945.
While some L-2s were furnished to foreign air forces, many rejoin their civilian counterparts on the U.S. civilian register after the war as
comparatively cheap warbirds; In the immediate postwar era, the commercial BC-12 D
was manufactured for a time, and has become a popular example of late-1940's light
aircraft