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General information | |
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Type | Personal use and air taxi aircraft |
National origin | United States |
Manufacturer | Cessna Reims Aviation |
Number built | 2,993[1] |
History | |
Manufactured | 1963–1982 |
Introduction date | 1962 |
First flight | February 28, 1961 |
Variants | Cessna O-2 Skymaster Conroy Stolifter Spectrum SA-550 |
The first Skymaster, Model 336 Skymaster, had fixed landing gear and initially flew on February 28, 1961.It went into production in May 1963 with 195 being produced through mid-1964. In February 1965, Cessna introduced the Model 337 Super Skymaster. The model was larger, and had more powerful engines, retractable landing gear, and a dorsal air scoop for the rear engine. (The "Super" prefix was subsequently dropped from the name.) In 1966, the turbocharged T337 was introduced, and in 1973, the pressurized P337G entered production.
The Skymaster handles differently from a conventional twin-engine aircraft, primarily in that if an engine fails, the plane will not yaw toward that engine. Without the issue of differential thrust inherent to conventional (engine-on-wing) twins, engine failure on takeoff will not produce yaw from the runway heading. With no one-engine-out minimum controllable speed (Vmc), in-flight control at any flying speed with an engine inoperative is not as critical as it is with engines on the wing with the associated leverage; however, performance in speed and, particularly, rate of climb are affected. Flying a Skymaster requires a pilot to hold a multiengine rating, although many countries issue a special "centerline thrust rating" for the Skymaster and other similarly configured aircraft
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From 1976 until the middle 1990s, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection used O-2 variants of the 337 Skymaster as tactical aircraft during firefighting operations. These were replaced with North American OV-10 Broncos, starting in 1993
Cessna built 2993 Skymasters of all variants, including 513 military O-2 versions
During the Rhodesian Bush War, the Reims-Cessna FTB 337G 'Lynx' was the main light attack aircraft used by Rhodesian Security Forces