Taylorcraft D

The Taylorcraft Model D was a tandem-seat light training aeroplane brought out by Taylorcraft Aviation in the early 1940s to win a share of the pilot-training market created by the Civilian Pilot Training Program and by the military, which preferred tandem seating, as in the Piper J-3 Cub, to the side-by-side seating of the Model B. It took up the tandem layout of the earlier Taylor J-2 and, like earlier Taylorcrafts, had a welded steel tube fuselage covered in fabric, though few major parts were shared with the Model B. The first version, the DC-65 with a Continental A65-8 engine, was shown in February 1941, and the DF-65 and DL-65 used Franklin and Lycoming engines. After about 200 were built, production turned to the military O-57, renamed L-2 in April 1942.