We love all our pointy nosed and stealthy stuff here, but FAC (forward air controller) and observation aircraft play an equally important role on the battlefield and are often far more dangerous missions to fly – low and slow over hostiles during active firefights.
This week’s release features the O-1A (L-19) Bird Dog! The Cessna L-19 Bird Dog (later redesignated the O-1) is a military observation and liaison aircraft that was developed for the US Army in the late 1940s. The Bird Dog also served with the United States Air Force and Marine Corps. The Bird Dog served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars and was later used by the Civil Air Patrol. Many Bird Dogs still fly as civilian warbirds. A total of 3,431 O-1s were built by Cessna with another 60 built under license by Fuji in Japan.
Our Bird Dog tags were cut from aircraft 51-4839, an aircraft that has lived several lives. This O-1 was constructed as an L-19 and served with the US Army during the Korean War. It later was transferred to the Japan Ground Self Defense Force (Japanese Army) and flew as JG-1020. After being sent back to the US it flew with the US Forest Service, registered as N150FS, which is the livery it was painted in when we acquired the skins last year. The aircraft is undergoing a full restoration and is being returned to flying status.
Tags from 51-4839 are offered in 6 variants: Green/Yellow, Black/Yellow, Green, Yellow, Green, Black, and Multi-Color. The Green/Yellow tags were cut along the stripe that ran the length of the aircraft as well as portions of the registration. The Green and Yellow tags were cut from various fuselage panels and the Black were cut from a small area of fuselage on the nose just forward of the cockpit that was painted black to reduce glare. We were able to etch the Black tags to show the underlying yellow paint! The Black/Yellow and Multi-Color tags were also cut from this nose panel. The Multi-Colors feature at least 2 colors of paint and some have up to 4 colors/finishes. An in-depth look at these tags has been posted to our Facebook page.
An “Oscar Set” is offered that includes a Green/Yellow O-1A tag, Olive O-2 Skymaster tag, and an Air Drop from each. To learn more aboout our O-2 tag, please visit the listing on the homepage.
In addition to the tags, both aircraft will be offered as Air Drops. We’re going to limit these SOLOs to 66 each, with many in the Oscar Sets. The Air Drops can be found under the Air Drops tab on the homepage.
Both tags ship on a card that features art by BVR. The O-1A tags are limited to 750 with several variants very limited.