Beechcraft L-23 Seminole

The Beechcraft L-23 Seminole, later designated U-8, was the United States Armed Forces designation for the Beechcraft Twin Bonanza and Queen Air aircraft in its inventory. The United States Army evaluated a Model 50 Twin Bonanza at Fort Bragg, North Carolina in 1951 and ordered four off-the-shelf examples as YL-23s, followed by the L-23A and L-23B versions that accounted for most Twin Bonanza production during 1952 and 1953. The first L-23A was delivered in February 1953. In 1958 the Army asked for a larger cabin, which produced the L-23F, the military form of the Model 65 that Beechcraft sold as the Queen Air. After the 1962 revision of military designations the aircraft became U-8s, and the type served the Army for almost forty years, with the last U-8Fs retired in 1992.