Curtiss O-52 « Owl »

[Stargazer]

I believe the U. S. Army Air Corps's Curtiss O-52 Owl is a fairly well-known type.

Still, it came to me as a surprise to discover the alternate armed variant shown in the attached plan. Was this ever tested on a real aircraft, or did it remain a paper project?

 

[Steve Pace]

I for one have never heard of an armed Owl variant. Good find - interesting! -SP

 

[Bill Walker]

I don't think the 3-view shows an alternate version. It shows a standard O-52 with the rear gun windows in the down position. I think the rear gun was standard.

 

[Jemiba]

Would agree with Bill, here http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php?topic=26029.0
and here http://de.academic.ru/dic.nsf/dewiki/288616 the rear gun is mentioned and
shown and the layout of the sliding hood for rear cockpit principally is the same, as that
of the SB2C Helldiver.

 

[Stargazer]

Very interesting folks. I don't think I'd ever seen a picture of the gun and the rear cockpit open. Funnily the profile views both come from Russian/Soviet sources, not American ones.

 

[Stargazer]

Just discovered the Russian magazine Aviatsiya N°5 (2000), which has a wonderful 10-page feature on the O-52 and its operational service in the U.S.S.R. One of the photos shows the O-52 with the gunner position open. There is also an interesting set of photos of the inside of the cockpit.

Shame I can't read Russian fluently... Anyway, I'm sharing the pics from the magazine here because they are not in very good resolution so it's not really detrimental to the publisher (if ever it still exists, because the magazine was apparently short-lived). I'd appreciate any tips to properly understand the chart which I believe lists all Soviet Owls and their fate.

 

[CostasTT]

I don't know where this one was originally from, but found it here.

 

[Stargazer]

I don't know where this one was originally from, but found it here.

Interesting. Aviatiya N°5 had a two-page color set of profiles from the same artist, but with notable change in color hue. Also the one you shared contains a profile with the gunner position open, which does NOT appear in that set!

I'm sharing a low-res version of that color set here:

 

[Stargazer]

Latest attached file replaced by better version.

 

[CostasTT]

Well, I can tell that the picture I posted must have come from a French publication...

 

[hesham]

From Flying magazine 1945-6.