Utility Warbird Cessna’s LC-126

Utility Warbird Cessna’s LC-126

Here’s a question for Flight Journal readers: How many are familiar with the Korean War–era Cessna LC-126? Let’s have a show of hands. Hmm. Not many.

If we rephrased that question as “How many are familiar with the Cessna 195?” we’d see lots of hands. This is interesting considering that they are the same airplane—sort of. The LC-126 is a 195 wearing fatigues, but being military, it is still very much its own airplane.

As the Korean War got underway, both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force (USAF), while super busy fighting bad guys in quilted coveralls in the snow, still had other parts of the world to look after. And they were in need of a utility airplane that could operate in a lot of different environments while carrying a good load at a decent speed. They didn’t have to look far because the Cessna 195 Businessliner had all the attributes they were looking for.

Read the article from the August 2018 issue of Flight Journal, click here.

Aviation History | History of Flight | Aviation History Articles, Warbirds, Bombers, Trainers, Pilots | Utility Warbird Cessna’s LC-126

The readily identifiable Air Rescue markings are intended to make the airplane highly visible in any environment.

by Budd Davisson | Photos courtesy of Experimental Aircraft Association

Updated: September 11, 2019 — 8:51 AM

2 Comments

  1. I’m designing & building a 28″ rubber free-flight model of the LC 126 & am using the USAF livery. Could you please tell me:
    a) the colors in your photo look brighter than the Wright Pat museum display. Are the colors in your WEB page pretty accurate or not? [no implied judgment here]

    b) are the additional vertical fins removable (as more typical for land use, i.e. with wheels instead of floats)? For modeling purposes I’d like to leave them off.
    Thanks for your help.

    1. Hi, thanks for the comments. The photo is of a full-size restoration aircraft, so it is finished by the owner. We have no way of knowing if the colors are accurate. Sorry. As for the sub fins, they look like they are not removable.

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