In 1970 Reims Aviation in France began producing Skymasters including the normally-aspirated, turbocharged and, in 1975, the pressurized models. Those airplanes are in service in 16 foreign countries. Many of the French airplanes are now being used for patrols or for sea rescue. As Cessna withdrew the Skymaster from U.S. production in 1980, the Reims affiliate was assigned worldwide marketing rights for the Skymaster including any future U.S. commercial/military sales. By that time 1,867 C-337/T337 units had been produced. From the 1964 C-336 production to the end of production in 1980 a total of 2,981 Skymaster series airplanes were produced at Cessna's Pawnee Division plant. The total number of Reims-built Skymasters was 109 units. These included a special Reims product, the FTB 337, which had 225 HP engines, Robertson STOL kit, armament pylons, and no cabin pressurization.
Derivatives of the Skymaster
The excellent CLT concept has prompted several aircraft modifiers to convert C-337s into cargo haulers (either single or twin-engine) with a greatly lengthened fuselage. One demonstrator aircraft, having only a large turboprop engine in the front, was being prepared for a trans-Atlantic flight to the Paris Air Show. As related to the author, the pilot said:
"I was taking off from Santa Barbara airport for a flight to Los Angeles to pick up my navigator before continuing to Paris, France. Upon climbing after take-off the engine suddenly stopped, and, fortunately, I was in a position to turn 90° for a possible landing on the beach. Then the engine picked up power, and, foolishly, I decided to continue outbound. In a minute or two the engine stopped the second time (for good), and I was forced to ditch. The extreme deceleration at impact astonished me and my jaw dropped. Water poured through an 18-inch opening in the windshield, and my open mouth caught most of it - I almost drowned! Then everything became dark, and I feared that the airplane was on the ocean's bottom. Actually, it was in a kelp bed. I wiggled out through the hole in the windshield and climbed up on the wing of the now-floating airplane.
"A group of 200 University of California at Santa Barbara students were on campus in a protest meeting when they saw me ditch. To their great credit, they rushed down the bluff, waded through the surf, and with a small boat pulled the airplane back to shallow water. To my amazement, they manually lifted the airplane through the surf, down the beach, and up the bluff before hosing it down with fresh water. This was probably the most productive thing they had done in their whole college career! And I will be eternally grateful. The damage was minuscule, and after a week of further clean-up we were able to resume our ferry mission to Paris. "
A month later in my office at Cessna he said, "Bill, in your ditching instructions in the owners manual, the 'turn-master-switch-off' step is unnecessary-there is plenty of water to prevent a fire!'"
Another exploratory version of the M337 was fitting our 0-2A prototype with Allison 250-BI5 turboprop engines rated at 317 shp. Jerry Baker was the project test pilot. After an intensive flight test program Jerry flew this O-2T to a number of USAF air bases for demonstrations including some flight test work at Wright Patterson AFB near Dayton, Ohio. Except for the high fuel consumption (inappropriate for a low-altitude reconnaissance mission), all went well until after his return he gave a demonstration flight to our chief engineer, Jerry Gerteis. While demonstrating "Beta Control" characteristics and propeller drag, the oil pressure went to zero on the rear engine. Then after shutting down the engine Jerry moved the propeller control to the feathered position. They made a routine engine-out landing, secured the front engine, and walked back to look at the failed rear engine. To their utter amazement and chagrin, the rear propeller was missing! Miraculously, it had departed the airplane without touching either of the tail booms. This, of course, caused propeller oil to be pumped through the open end of the crankshaft, resulting in the zero oil pressure indication. Jerry Gerteis who with good humor had always kidded us about wearing parachutes--hey guys, we can't all live forever "-suddenly became a believer. Had one or both tail booms been severed by the departing propeller, he would have thanked me for insisting on strapping him into one of our "uncomfortable" parachutes! We later found the propeller in a ranch pasture owned by one of our Experimental Department mechanics!
Perhaps the most interesting modification of an 0-2A was performed at the request of the Saudi Arabia government in 1982. Although Cessna had agreed to do this gunship project, and, in fact, had done some preliminary design on it, they deferred for political reasons and recommended that the author ramrod the conversion from Sunriver, Oregon. Detail design work was contracted to Flight Structures, Inc. of Redmond, Washington, and replacement of the two reciprocating engines with one 650 shp Allison C30 turboprop pusher engine was assigned to Soloy Conversions, Ltd. in Chehalis, Washington. The airplane was to be balanced by heavy armaments placed in a new lengthened nose of the fuselage. I also had the services of experts on propeller selection, propeller shroud design and fabrication, and wheel/ski landing gear design from various parts of the country. The purchased 0-2A was to be modified by Robertson Aircraft Corporation located at Paine Field in Everett, Washington. This was to be the forerunner of a group of gunships capable of operating off the desert sand adjacent to the Saudi Arabian oil fields and capable of intercepting and destroying ground marauders who might want to sabotage the oil wells.
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[Another Story: CESSNA 337 SKYMASTER: JUST SAY THREE-THREE-SEVEN]