L-16 Airbase Arizona
Description:
Base:
Mesa, AZ
Website:
| L-16 Specs | |
|---|---|
| Role | Liaison |
| Manufacturer | Aeronca |
| Produced | 1946-1950 |
| Power | 1 × Continental O-205-1 (C90) air-cooled flat-four, 90 hp |
| Length | 21 ft 6 in |
| Height | 7 ft |
| Wingspan | 35 ft |
| Range | 350 mi |
Wartime Mission: target-spotting and Liaison with Korea. The L-16 was a US civilian aircraft in military colors. The result of numerous design and engine upgrades throughout its use in WWII and post-war civilian pleasure-flying, it served in the Army throughout the Korean War, where it performed many of the same roles it had in WWII: Target-spotting, observation, general utility, liaison missions, and rescue.
Post war, in the late 1950s, quite a few L-16s returned to civilian life, where most of them shed their wartime paint and resumed life as 7BCM or 7CCM Champs, teaching primary students to fly across the US. Still others went on to serve in the US Civil Air Patrol, a civilian search-and-rescue arm of the US Air Force.
