Cessna 336 Skymaster (N5VN)

Nice shot of this unique aircraft!

Nice shot of this unique aircraft!

These were used in Vietnam for Recon and "Psywar", Which is an abbreviation for Psychological warfare the would drop leaflets, and have huge loudspeakers blaring propaganda to the enemy.

Ah, a push-me pull-you!

Cavanaugh Flight Museum out of Dallas does a very cool Vietnam SAR demo using the O-2, UH-1, Caribou, and both an A-1D and A-1E Sandy. I had never seen that demo before.

Great photo of a unique aircraft. Thanks to "John Hodges" for informing us about the Cavanaugh Flight Museum in Dallas. My wife and I will be visiting Texas next year. Unlike our older generation that all used to go to Dallas to visit Southfork Ranch, we will most certainly visit this museum. Leon Kay, South Africa.

It may have been used for psyops, but in III Corps, it replaced the venerable Cessna O-1 birddog, which I flew as a FAC ( Forward Air Controller) for a year during the VN war. Note the WP rocket on the wing, which was used to mark the target.

Very cool. and thank you for your service.

1968 Tuy Hoa AB, RVN. AS a USAF Air Traffic Controller invited to fly along on a "Psych" mission, dropping leaflets and playing music/"Psych" broadcast. The AF pilot went by the callsign "Batman" and it was his intent to get riders air sick. He succeeded with me. :-) Subsequently found, getting Controllers air sick was a hobby with "Batman".

This is actually a 337, it has retractable gear, the 336 had fixed gear. I worked for a Cessna dealer when these things came out. If Cessna had made better provisions for carrying luggage I think this would have really taken off. It was the only twin engine airplane I felt comfortable taking off on one engine.

Here is named "chupa y sopla"

Nice pic. Flew the O-2 for a few hundred hours in the late 80's out of Hill AFB as a safety chase aircraft for mini-drone/UAV test programs over the Utah Test & Training Range. Our squadron had three of these and we were part of Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB which had two. The five were eventually "sold" to the Dominican Republic. To clear up some of the comments and based upon my memories and a great book called "Cessna Warbirds", yes, the Cessna 336 was non-retract and the 337 was retract but the O-2's were original designs based upon the 337 with added windows for observation, and strengthened wings to carry the pylons which could hold the WP and smoke rockets and also a mini-gun. The regular observation/Forward Air Controller (FAC) version was the O-2A and the psyops version was the O-2B commonly referred to by the pilots as the "bulls**t bomber."
The safety chase O-2A's we flew in UT were modified with all pylons off, prop spinners put back on, and all the heavy radio gear removed and replaced with King RNAV gear and radios (before GPS was common). Being much lighter, it could really haul a**. Click on my name to see a great pic of two O-2s in formation approaching Hill AFB - they had been converted back to regular configuration just before being sold to the Dom Rep. BTW, that is me in the white hat in number two. For a very brief moment I was in, just about, perfect formation. :-) Cheers, folks!

A great shot of a very rare aircraft!

.....I've never seen a 336 with retract gear...sure it's not a 337?....

Got my first multi-engine rating in Cessna Skymaster 337. It was limited to multi-engine aircraft with center line thurst!

1967 CESSNA 337 (O-2A) SUPER SKYMASTER