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U.S. ARMY L23/U8 SERIES TWIN BONANZAS

The Army first secured four off the shelf examples of the Twin Bonanza (S/N H-8 through H11) that were designated the Model “YL-23”. These first reached Fort Sill Oklahoma for evaluation on January 30, 1952, in time for the airplane to see considerable service in the Korean War. With evaluation complete and sporting a coat of GI paint, it was dubbed the “Seminole” and sent off to Korea as the L-23. High performance and a wide landing gear made the L-23 ideally suited for small field operations, with ability to land and takeoff from short unimproved airstrips. It was used for staff transportation, general utility and liaison. Among the many passengers was the 8th Army Commander, President Syngman Rhee plus many touring USO stars.

On June 1, 1957 Army pilots started trans-Atlantic hops to Europe for arial delivery of command aircraft from the States to U. S. Army, Europe. The overseas service was inaugurated with the flight of two L23D’s to Germany. Subsequent models delivered to the Army after the L23’s, became the L-23A, L-23B, XL-23C, L23-D/U8-D, L23E/U-8E, RL-23D/U-8D, U8G and RU-23D/RU-8D. Of special interest is the involvement of elaborate electronics on the RL23D/RU8D.

When referring to the generic term “U-8” note that this same designation as well as the nick name “Seminole” were also used for the Beechcraft “Queenaire” model. This however was inventoried as the L23F/U-8F. The Utility Transport L23F/U-8F was about two feet longer than the U-8D, RU-8D or RU-23D. While many of the structural characteristics were similar to the Twin Bonanza, it was quite a different flying machine. 65 Of the F models were supplied to the Army. Ninety three model of the early model L23A and L23B aircraft were rebuilt and reconfigured into the L23D/U8D, between September 1957 and August 1959. Powered by two Lycoming 340 H.P. O-480-1 engines, the new factory serial numbers were designated “RLH”. The $1,710,000 contract was awarded on March 25, 1957 to Beech Aircraft by Air Material Command from its headquarters at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

Each aircraft was completely stripped and brought back to zero time. The aircraft’s’ design performance and appearance was made comparable to the 1957 production L23D, which was then currently being produced for the Army under a separate $2,800,000 order.

The L-23D and commercial E50 were the first supercharged models in the Twin Bonanza series. The two 340 H.P. engines gave the aircraft a 240 mph high speed and a maximum cruising speed of 228 mph. This was nearly 40 mph faster than the early A and B models. Gross weights were upped 1,000 pounds over the model B and 1,500 pounds over the model A to 7,000. It then climbed at 1,620 fpm and had a service ceiling of 24,800 - almost a mile higher than its predecessors. Range was 1,650 miles.

Having first served in Korea on December 1, 1952, The L-23’s first mission was to transport staff officers and commanders. This however, would change as the requirements for some specific needs were met as they saw action in the Vietnam conflict.

SECURITY AGENCY (ASA) - VIETNAM

Mr. Minard D. Thompson, Jr., shares some of his personal recollections involving his tour as a Maintenance Test Pilot in Vietnam, flying the RU-8D Twin Bonanza. He provides this important insight on his experiences and the important roll these aircraft provided.

“I Flew for the Army Security Agency (ASA) at Phu Bai from December 1971 to May 1972. About that time the Cong were really getting aggressive (remember we were leaving by the hundreds), and the SAM line (the effective area for the SAMs being now located south of what had been called the DMZ), was moving south until it was just north of the traffic pattern at Phu Bai. The RU-8D aircraft did not have the RHAW (Radar Homing and Warning) system installed, so the Battalion sent us south to Long Than and all of the U-21s with the RHAW gear went north.

Upon arrival at Long Than, I discovered that they flew the mission at 1,500 MSL and that was right inside the small-arms limit. Being your basic coward, I protested a lot about the lack of blue sky between my butt and the ground. After a couple of missions at that altitude I was asked by the maintenance officer if I would like to be the Maintenance Test Pilot, and I readily accepted. LOCATING THE CONG - As I look in my logbook I see that I flew my first mission in Vietnam on 23 November 1971 and my last on 29 July 1972. Our mission was to locate Viet Cong radio transmitters, usually co-located with major Cong units, by the use of triangulation. To obtain the desired results we had to use fairly sophisticated navigational equipment on board the RU-8D and U-21. By using totally independent nav systems we could draw pictures of the target’s location on the ground. The information was then forwarded, along with the coded message that our radio operator heard, to headquarters for interpretation and analysis. If the information was good the Corps might request an “Arc Light” (B-52 strike) on the spot that we pinpointed. We felt handicapped when we observed only limited numbers of our targets being bombed due to the political climate of the war. Our missions lasted in the RU-8D and U-21 (RU-21A), D) about 4 hours, most of which was spent loitering in an area waiting for the bad Guys to talk. The companies were the 146th Avn Co (RR), at Long Than, 156th Avn Co (RR) at Can Tho, 138th Avn Co (RR) at Phu Bai and the 1st Avn Co (RR) at Cam Ranh Bay. The 1st flew twelve hour missions in the P2V Neptune doing a similar mission. Numerous things happened throughout my year that made things humorous in retrospect. The poisonous bug that bit me on the toe while I was sitting on the crapper, the food that was so bad that we decided to eat C-rations to survive, the midnight rocket attacks, pilots manning machine guns on the perimeter so that the enlisted men could have Christmas off. During the flying, I concluded that Vietnam was a beautiful country and I hoped that it could see better times”.

ARMY AVIATION AT FORT RUCKER

The sky was the limit at Fort Rucker, Alabama at this sprawling military installation. It was the home of the United States Army Aviation School, where it was moved from Fort Sill, Oklahoma in September 1954. The school Commandant and post commanding general, Brig. Carl I. Hutton was one of America’s foremost proponents of the Army aviation concept. Under his watch, they trained more than 2,000 members of the Army ground forces each year. Fifteen separate aviation courses ranged from flight instruction to maintenance training. Included in this highly specialized schooling was the twin-engine transition and instrument flight examiner courses, in which the students used the versatile L-23 Twin Bonanza. The twin engine transition lasted three weeks, with candidates flying a total of 30 hours in the L23, 10 of which were devoted to additional instrument training. Ft. Rucker produced about 200 twin-engine pilots annually. Instrument flying rapidly become an indispensable part of Army training to make full utilization of the L-23’s capability. Examiners were selected from the ranks of instrument qualified officers, who received a total of 40 hours in the L-23 to earn their examiner rating. About 70 examiners were trained per year.

U. S. ARMY NATIONAL GUARD

Many of the L23/U8 aircraft were later transitioned from the regular Army service over to National Guard units. They were stationed and served well in many states and were utilized in a variety of ways, throughout the United States.