For every WW II, gun-toting combat bird, be it fighter or bomber, there were dozens of trainers, liaison grasshoppers, transports, and utility craft that history has largely forgotten. One of those is the Stinson Reliant that, when dressed in camo and wearing roundels or stars, labored in the background performing mundane squadron hack duties or, more importantly, providing training for fledgling navigators, photographers, etc. as the UC-81/AT-19. The Reliant was a child of the 1930s, the Golden Age for aviation in all its guises, military, civilian and commercial alike. The 1920s had proven that the airplane wasn’t just a passing fad and the 1930s was when every aspect of the airplane was explored for possible alternate uses. Those ranged from carrying moose carcasses in the Arctic to pampering airline passengers…
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Flight Journal (Digital) - 1 Issue, September/October 2023