The Stinson L-5 Sentinel was a small American liaison aircraft built by the Stinson division of Consolidated-Vultee, before and during World War II. Began his life as the pre-war Stinson Model 105 Voyager.
The L-5 was manufactured between October 1942 and September 1945, during which time a total of over 3,896 of these unarmed, two-seat aircraft were built for the United States armed forces, making it the second most widely used light observation aircraft of the war. Personnel in all service branches commonly referred to it as the "Flying Jeep".
The L-5 was primarily constructed from steel tubing and plywood and was covered with doped cotton fabric.
Capable of operating from forward unimproved airstrips, the L-5 "Sentinel" delivered information and needed supplies to the front line troops. On the return trip, she would evacuate the badly wounded soldiers to rear area field hospitals for medical attention.
Five versions were produced for the U.S. Army Air Force (USAAF); the L-5, L-5B, L-5C, L-5E and L-5G. There was no L-5A variant as is often reported, as the designation was intended for conversions of some L-5s modified with 24V electrical systems. The conversions were cancelled when the modification became standard on all subsequent models. The L-5 carried a pilot and observer in a tandem seating configuration. The L-5B through L-5G models were modified to carry a litter patient or light cargo, or a rear seat passenger sitting in the normal position. The Navy and Marine versions of the airplane were the 0Y-1 and 0Y-2. The latter differed from all others in that it had a 24 volt electrical system instead of the previously standard 12 volts. The British procured 40 L-5s, known as Sentinel Is, and 60 L-5Bs known as Sentinel IIs.
The USAAF, US Marines, and US Navy used this aircraft in the European, Pacific, and Far East theaters during World War II, and Korean War. The British RAF operated 100 Sentinels in India and Burma.
SPECIFICATIONS
Span: 34 ft. 0 in.
Length: 24 ft. 1 in.
Height: 8 ft. 11 1/2 in.
Weight: 2,050 lbs. max.
Armament: None
Engine: Lycoming O-435-1 of 185 hp.
PERFORMANCE
Maximum speed: 130 mph.
Cruising speed: 90 mph.
Range: 360 miles
Service Ceiling: 15,600 ft.
Original FS5 model creator: Jerry Arzdorf (C)1997.
Panel by: J.L.Stubbs (Stinson 108)
All reworked to FS98/CFS1 with new textures, damage profile and moving parts: Edmundo Abad 2010.
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Repainted as USAAF Stinson L-5 # 298989, Normandy theater, with "Invasion Stripes" on bottom surfaces.
I have included new textures, moving parts and damage profile for use with CFS1, with ficcional armament of one 7.92 mm machine gun on the rear cockpit, underwings "bazooka" and light bombs.
This virtual model is up-scaled to obtain a better view in Combat Flight Simulator.
(for accurate scale in FS98, replace the file STINSNL5.MDL by STINSNL5.old.MDL and rename this as STINSNL5.MDL)
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Installation FS98/CFS
1. Unzip to Temporaly directory "stinson_L5.zip".
2. Copy "stinson_L5" folder to X:\CFS\aircraft directory.
3. Copy "gauges" folder to X:\CFS\gauges directory.
