Monday, October 26, 2009

Cessna Caravan

The Cessna Caravan (208) is a fixed gear, high wing turboprop aircraft used as a regional airliner and cargo aircraft.

And as a warbird. Aviation Week has photos of a Caravan outfitted with Hellfire missiles, flying out of Meacham Airport near Fort Worth. The aircraft are being modified by ATK Integrated Systems, who has a major facility at Meacham.



The article says they're slated for the Iraqi Air Force. Ain't that interesting? I've always thought that if I ever win the Powerball, the Caravan would fit nicely into my millionaire portfolio. Who knew you could get them with missiles?

2 comments:

Bob@thenest said...

I might have pictured popping the window panels and having guys back there throwing Molotov cocktails out, or even grenades, but armed with missiles?!!!

Rivrdog said...

The NVA attack on Skyspot site Lima-85 in the Central Highlands of Laos during the Vietnam war proved that you can make an attack aircraft out of anything.

The North Vietnamese Air Force used AN-2 biplanes! They fitted them out with simple bomb racks which were loaded with 120mm mortar rounds.

BTW, that attack missed the main target, and the retreating slow AN-2s suffered 66% casualties, with a Hmong defender shooting one down at the site with his M16, and the CIA getting another by chasing it in a Huey, overtaking it, and killing the pilots with bursts from their M16s. That was the only air-to-air victory of a Huey in the whole war! The third AN-2 only got away because it was the command bird, and stood off, giving it a headstart to flee when the attack failed.

That attack, being unsuccessful against the high-priority target, was followed up with a ground assault some time later, in which it is rumored that Speznaz troops were used. Those troops enveloped the site and overran it.

I flew a lot of B52 missions with the aid of Lima-85, but only learned their story in the past few years.