Stinson L-1 Vigilant

The Stinson L-1 Vigilant, company Model 74, was a two-seat liaison and observation aircraft designed by the Stinson Aircraft Company of Wayne, Michigan and built at the Vultee-Stinson factory in Nashville, Tennessee after Stinson became a Vultee division in 1940. It answered a 1938 Army Air Corps competition for a short-range observation aircraft, which Stinson won over eleven rivals with an order for 100 aircraft that was later extended to 142. A radial-engined high-wing monoplane with full-span leading-edge slats and large slotted flaps, it could fly stably at 31 miles per hour and land and take off again inside a 200-foot circle. The Army knew it as the O-49 until 1942, and the Royal Air Force received some as the Vigilant. High cost ended the contract after 1942, and the cheaper L-5 Sentinel replaced it.