Cessna L-19A  Bird Dog  51-12542

                                 

                                     In the late 1940s, the DOD started looking around for a "Grasshopper" type aircraft to replace
                                     the, by then, aging Piper L-4s and Stinson L-5s.   The Cessna Model 305, a derivation of the high-
                                     ly successful civilian model 170 provided the answer and some 3,200 L-19s were built between
                                     1950 and 1959, most of them initially going to the US Army.  They were used in a variety of utility
                                     roles such as artillery spotting, front-line communications, medevac and training, and many of them
                                     did sterling work in Viet Nam.  The model was designated O-1A in 1962, the "Liaison" prefix giving
                                     way to "Observation" following the DOD's restructuring of its type designations.  The Army O-1 Bird
                                     Dogs were turned over to the US Air Force in 1964, while the Army began its transition to a "rotor-
                                     wing" force (helicopters).    Many O-1As survive to this day on both the US and overseas civil
                                     registers.