November Mystery Airplane Contest

Military aviation began before WWI with an emphasis on observation of the enemy. A large number of "two-seaters" emerged during the Great War to be the eyes of the army. Post war, the United States and other nations continued to depend on large, relatively slow aircraft that would make good targets for fast, heavily armed fighters. One of the last of these for the United States was the Curtiss O-52 Owl.

Ordered to U.S. Army Air Corps specification W-535-ac-13362 on 12 October 1939, 203 Curtiss O-52 Owls were delivered from Buffalo, New York, between June 1941 and January 1942 at an average uni...