In the Korean war,
Buck Hilbert was a 2nd Lieutenant and Artillery Liaison Pilot, or Army
Aviator as they were then called. He had flown B-17's in
WWII, and did dirt field flying around the Midwest until recalled for
Korea. His stint as an Army Aviator lasted just under two years. About
this he says, "I wouldn't trade that experience for a million dollars, nor
would I go through it again for a million." It did prove the versatility
of fixed-wing aircraft, which of course have since been overshadowed by the
development of helicopters. After Korea, he was the first Army Aviator
hired by United Airlines to get through the program and spent 32 years
with them.
Buck met Al Mooney in 1951 when Al was on a trip to Fort Sill,
Oklahoma trying to sell the "Cub Buster" to the Army Brass. They discussed
the airplane -- off the record. At that time, Fort Sill was the home of
the Advanced Tactics Flying School. It was there that the
AA pilots were taught how to get maximum performance out of their
aircraft -- fire direction, evacuation, communications -- and how to be the
eyes of the Armored and whoever else needed aerial observation. The Bell
H-13 and the Hiller helicopters were just getting started, and the fixed
wing was still the king.
Before we get to Buck's description of his flight in the M-19, here are
his general comments about Artillery Liaison:
Liaison Aircraft enjoyed a status reminiscent of the State Highway
Patrol Car on the freeway. The minute they were spotted, everyone
began to obey the rules. Our guys would say, "Here's the 'L' Plane!
Knock off the fire so he can see what's going on!" All the shooting
would stop and everyone would lay low. The enemy did so as well,
knowing that the "L" plane could call up artillery support quickly
with his radio microphone. And our guys did so, hoping the enemy
would give away his position.
"The "L" plane could do "S" turns across the lines all day, and
unless the enemy thought he could knock him down from cover, they
would never fire a shot, fearing they'd give away their position.
That was because artillery fire could be devastating. When an
observer took over his assigned sector, whether it was early morning
or whatever, he took his grid chart and ordered his batteries to
fire at various focal points to test their accuracy. Once trued-up,
he could call fire to those points, or corrected ones, with great
accuracy. He would patrol his sector looking for targets of
opportunity until his fuel ran low, and nothing would happen. |
Buck describes his flight experience in the M-19 as follows:
A quick cockpit checkout, and a slap on the back
and away I went. It was just like your M-18, about as tight, same Mexican
gear handle, short run down the road and off I went. I took a few
minutes to play and then after charging the guns made a run on the
targets in the punch bowl (burned out tanks & trucks and whatever).
The concussion of the guns gave me thoughts about whether or not the
structure would handle it for a length of time, and after exhausting
my allotted 50 rounds, I came back, made a low pass and landed again
on the road I took off from. |
Here is his evaluation of the aircraft:
| The Brass never consulted me or asked my opinion,
but if they had, I'd have said I didn't like the idea of making my
patrol car an instant target. This was definitely not a Close
Support Aggressive Vehicle, and if it displayed aggressive behavior,
it would instantly draw fire from every available source. It would
also have been necessary to have complete air superiority because
the airplane
could not survive an enemy fighter attack.
There were several reasons why the Army treated the M-19 with
disdain. The "Old Time Army Aviators" were afraid of the tricycle
gear, for one. Also, it had no armor plate or defensive equipment
and did present a somewhat frail appearance next to the massive L-5
which they were accustomed to. The armament consisted of two .30
caliber machine guns located in the wing roots and firing just
outside the arc of the propeller. They were manually charged
(cocked) by two D handles attached to cables at each side of the
cockpit floor. There was
precious little space for extra ammo. I think about fifty rounds was
all they could handle.
There were no hard points for rockets that I know of. The initial
velocity for rocket launch stability at that time was about 180
knots. Some real problems came to the fore when some of our
frustrated, would-be, close-support pilots purloined rockets from
the other services and attempted to use them from the Cessna L-19s.
The Brass as individuals may have liked the concept but, all in all,
the fun part of the flying machine in no way made it suitable for
its military concept.
Being a single place aircraft was a disadvantage. To accurately
direct artillery fire really called for an Observer. No room for
one.
The tail draggers routinely operated from unimproved airstrips of
decidedly short length, over fences and under wires. We were known
as Army Fliers. We landed on beaches, curved roads, up hill, over
obstacles on take-off and landing, and we banged up airplanes doing
it.
In the eyes of the Brass, after looking at the L-5 and then the new
L-19, the Mooney looked very fragile and small. Those little wheels
demanded improved landing surfaces. The nose gear could easily drop
into a rut or drop off and get the prop.
The real crux, as I said, was that the airplane couldn't live in
a combat environment if it showed aggression. It would become an
instant target. and again, it would have had to have complete air
superiority in order to survive.
After the Chinese drove the UN troops from the Yalu River all the
way down to Pusan, they captured a whole slug of armament in the
form of Fifty calibers, Twenties and Forties mounted on half tracks
and other armored vehicles left behind in the rout. It took them a
couple weeks to get the arms and the ammo together, but then they
effectively neutralized the Liaison aircraft. The Fifties drove them
to 2500 ft., the Twenties and Forties to ten thousand feet. Prior to
that, missions were flown at 500 feet or so, where targets and
results were plainly visible.
From your reports (elsewhere in the Mite Site),
Mooney obviously tried very hard to sell the military on the
concept. He sure got the run-around according to the reports.
It was my only encounter with Al and the airplane. I never did know
what happened to it. |
Buck presently lives on a small farm at Union, Illinois where he has a
2000 ft. strip in the back yard and keeps a Fleet 10F, a Champ, and a
Helton Lark 95, a fixed tri-gear version of the Culver Cadet derived from
the PQ-8, about which he says, "It's a fun machine, but again, an airport
lover because of its itty bitty wheels." |