Category: L-5 History Blog

Previously Unrecognized Combat History Revealed! – April 5, 2023

A critique with corrections and explanations – Feb.23, 2023

A Baker’s Dozen of Stinson L-5 Fiction vs. Facts – January 30, 2023 What follows is a list of the 13 most common misunderstandings about the L-5 that are found in books and magazines, and on popular aviation websites. It includes mistakes made by respected institutions such as the Smithsonian, National Museum of the Air…

Another Ramble Through the Brambles of L-5 History  by James H. Gray Censorship, Media, and the L-5 “All the News That’s Fit to Print” is one of the most iconic slogans in the history of American journalism. It first appeared in the New York Times in 1897 and 125 years later it still adorns the…

June 28, 1941, First Flight of L-5 Prototype NX27772 by Jim Gray June 28th marks the anniversary of the first flight of Stinson’s prototype L-5, known to factory employees as the Model 76. Its CAA registration was NX27772 and chief pilot Albert “Al” Schramm took the experimental silver airplane aloft for its initial test. The…

May 10, 1940 – The largest liaison aircraft mission in history – Part 1   by Jim Gray * Footnotes located at the end of the article are denoted in the text with chevrons <#> Fall Gelb, Aufmarschanweisung N°4      Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) was the name of the plan for the German invasion of western…

April 18, 1943 – L-5 Production Increase Recommended. Admiral Yamamoto killed On April 18, 1943, the Wright Field Engineering Section’s Chief of Production, Colonel Samuel Brentnall, sent a memo to the Statistical Control Office advising them that Stinson would complete its AT-19 contract in September and the additional capacity would be available for increased L-5 production….

February 3, 1939 – Stinson HW-75 Test Flown by Al Schramm [Note: For an historic “feel” while reading this I suggest listening to Artie Shaw’s “Rose Room”, recorded for Bluebird Records on January 31, 1939. Click HERE.      83 years ago today, a forerunner of the L-5 Sentinel, called the HW-75, Stinson’s first venture…

January 1943 – The Stinson L-5 Joins the Army Air Forces The Stinson L-5 began service with the U.S. Army Air Forces (USAAF) in January 1943 when thirty-six Sentinels were assigned to the 66th Observation Group at Morris Field in Charlotte, North Carolina. Starting with the sixth plane off the assembly line, this batch of…

December 16, 2021 – George Doig, former Stinson employee, turns 100 today. In my last L-5 History Blog #20, published in June, I promised to write another article “next month”. Despite that sincere intention, the death of my 92 year old mother and other events intervened and here we are near the end of the…

June 22, 2021 – Operation NIWI and the Fall of France in June 1940. Last month I concluded my “blog” with a cliffhanger by hinting at an unusual  military operation involving the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch. I then left my readers guessing about what I was referring to. The little-known event in question was code-named…

May 20, 2021 – What happened this day in 1940. HEADLINE: May 20, 1940 – Washington. D.C.   A $1,182,941,000 Army Bill won quick approval of the Senate Appropriations Committee while the nation’s military chieftains urged speedy realization of President Roosevelt’s goal of an air armada of 50,000 planes that he announced to Congress on May…

March 31, 2021 – What the L-5 cost in WWII and some key players behind the scenes… One of the questions I often receive from L-5 owners is “What did the L-5 cost in World War II?”. The answer varies according to which contract is quoted, and as more planes were ordered the price decreased…

March 1, 2021 – Looking back 83 Years ago today, and at connected events. History without documentation is mythology. My mother, who is 91, has been an avid reader of history for as long as I can remember, so she is partly to blame for my own all-consuming fascination with history of all types. Professionally,…

November 19, 2020 – Recalling a cartoon published this date in 1942. Women Helped Build Planes For Stinson. When I sat down at my desk a few minutes ago  – which appropriately enough for today’s monolog is a converted 1940’s vintage mahogany sewing table – I didn’t have the slightest clue what I was going…

October 30, 2020 – Looking back at this date in 1941. Procurement of the Stinson Model 76 recommended. On October 30, 1941 the Experimental Engineering Section at Wright Field published its report on the new Stinson Model 76 airplane that had been test flown during August and September by observation squadrons located at Forts Sill,…

October 25th, 2020 – Remembering today in 1944. The first Kamikaze attack of WWII. A somber subject for a somber evening here in Juneau, Alaska as I watch an early season light snow develop into a blizzard. Today marks the 76th anniversary of the first Kamikaze suicide attack of World War Two, a horrifying and unexpected…

May 8, 2020 – Remembering today’s date in 1945. V-E Day and L-5’s in the ETO. Many people still celebrate May 8th as Victory in Europe (V-E) day, although in Russia and a few other countries they hold the remembrance on May 9th, which is when many of you will have read this.  The official…

March 31, 2020 – Photo Sleuthing. Discovering when and where an old L-5 photo was taken. This photo was posted on a popular internet auction site this week. No documentation was included with it, no useful information was inscribed on the back, and the fuselage bears no unit identification. So, when and where was it…

March 13, 2020. An L-5 Photo Detective Story. Yesterday, on Gerry Asher’s Liaision Aircraft History and Preservation Facebook page, there appeared a series of pictures of a wrecked L-5 ambulance airplane copied from that well-known internet auction site. No tail numbers, unit markings or other identifying features are visible — just the vague information that…

January 11, 2020 – Looking back at today in 1943. Not Just Bad Day for the Stinson Aircraft Company. January 11, 1943 was a Monday. The headline stories in the newspapers around the country talked of President Roosevelt’s budget message to Congress, and of heavy rains hampering American air and ground operations in Tunisia, and…

January 7, 2020 – Looking back at this day in 1942. First L-5 Manufacturing Contract Issued. The purchase of Stinson’s new “Flying Jeep” by the Army Air Corps was set in motion on November 24, 1941 (see History blog #1) but the first contract was not issued until January 7, 1942 when the Materiel Division’s…

December 10, 2019 – Remembering this day in 1941. Experimental light plane units sanctioned for artillery spotting. With the wreckage at Pearl Harbor still smoldering and the rest of the country still in shock, there was more bad news. On December 10, 1941 the lightly defended American base on Guam in the Mariana Islands, 3,800…

December 7, 2019 – Remembering this day in 1941. A 79 year perspective on The Day of Infamy. The Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that took place on December 7th, 1941, is of course indelibly burned into the American consciousness. For many, the day is still as dark as the oil fires that blackened…

December 2, 1942 – Stinson L-5 undergoes stress analysis at Wright Field. On December 2, 1942, stress testing of the Stinson L-5 began at the Wright Field Structures Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio. Although the prototype V-76 airplane had passed muster with the Army Air Corps and the engineers at Wright Field over a year earlier,  leading…

October 30, 2019 – 78 Years ago today in L-5 history. Procurement of the Stinson Model 76 recommended On October 30, 1941 the Experimental Engineering Section at Wright Field published its report on the new Stinson Model 76 airplane that had been test flown during August and September by observation squadrons located at Forts Sill,…