This aircraft was parked at the very back of the McCarran airport, and I was absolutely fascinated by it. It has a propeller on the back of the fuselage as well, though not very well shown in the picture.
What is its name or model?
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1$\begingroup$ The back propeller is visible in the first picture, under the letter N and number 6 , just barely visible. My apologies for the quality $\endgroup$– Lee RutherforddJul 28, 2018 at 21:23
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6$\begingroup$ Welcome to aviation.SE! For future reference, if you can see the registration (N number) clearly, you can always look it up in the FAA's database $\endgroup$– PondlifeJul 28, 2018 at 21:30
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$\begingroup$ BTW those are pretty good pictures considering you had to stay outside the fence. $\endgroup$– A. I. BreveleriJul 29, 2018 at 0:07
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1$\begingroup$ Having changed only the size of the images and making no difference to many people who can see them, the image descriptions have been removed, making them useless to those who can't. @kevin $\endgroup$– NijJul 29, 2018 at 9:32
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$\begingroup$ The Military bought a bunch of these and used them as light observation aircraft in Vietnam and afterwards in the 70s and early 80s. The Military version was the O-2A. Two squadrons were formed in the CONUS, one at Bergstrom AFB in Austin, TX, and one at Shaw AFB (I think), in South Carolina. $\endgroup$– Charles BretanaJul 29, 2018 at 12:52
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3 Answers
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Googling the plane's registration number (this one is N6361F) is almost always enough to identify the plane.
In this case, FlightAware is high on the list of hits and says that the plane is a Cessna 337A, built in 1966. Searching for "Cessna 337A" then leads to Wikipedia for more information.
answered Jul 28, 2018 at 22:54
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That's a Cessna 337 Skymaster. They were built from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. Because the two engines are both on the fuselage centerline, the Skymaster is more controllable than a conventional twin engine aircraft in the event that an engine fails.
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2$\begingroup$ IIRC, the military version of this had a distinguished history in Vietnam. $\endgroup$ Jul 29, 2018 at 14:16
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$\begingroup$ How would gyroscopic effects affect this sort of push-pull configuration vs conventional twin engine in the event of engine failure? $\endgroup$ Jul 30, 2018 at 0:00
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3$\begingroup$ @Krumia That would be good as a formal question. $\endgroup$ Jul 30, 2018 at 3:05
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Cessna 337 Skymaster and/or the O-2. The 337 uses a push/pull design which is rarely encountered, but gives you the advantage of centerline thrust in the event of an engine failure (but the disadvantage of a noisier cockpit). You can see the military variant in the 1988 film Bat 21 with Gene Hackman and Danny Glover, some great aerial footage regarding the power and maneuverability of the aircraft. Because of the push/pull prop design, some nicknamed it the "Mixmaster", but if you watch the movie Bat 21, you will see what a great aircraft it is despite the blender reference.
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$\begingroup$ Also, for quick historical reference, although Cessna is known primarily as a civilian aircraft manufacturer, they have a history of producing aircraft that have seen combat such as the 337/O-2 above. I flew the T-37 Tweet and T-41 Mescalaro, both Cessna products, in the USAF, and my former unit flew the A-37 Dragonfly variant of Cessna's T-37, many years ago, which is used as a low-cost ground attack aircraft to this day in several South American nations. Cessna also had an entry into the Tactical Surveillance role around 2013, just like the 337/O2 above, called the Scorpion. $\endgroup$– Taurus69Jul 30, 2018 at 18:34