Scout plane

For World War I single seat fighters called "scouts", seeScout (aircraft).For other uses, seeScout (disambiguation) § Aircraft.

Ascoutis a type ofUnited States Navyaircraft whose name derives from the scout cruisers used by the US Navy for similar roles, including screening (escorting) the fleet against enemy forces and was often combined with other roles, such as artillery spotting, reconnaissance and bombing to which the role is often conflated.

Scouts first made their appearances duringWorld War I.The United Kingdom'sRoyal Naval Air Service,keen on developing the new medium of aerial warfare, converted a number of vessels asseaplane tendersfor scouting purposes. Similarly,battleshipsbegan to mount short flight decks on top of gun turrets, enabling small single seat aircraft to take-off from them. Initially these single-seater "scouts", having no floats to land on and having no landing deck to return to, either had to find dry land for landing, or else had to ditch onto the sea. During World War I, other more satisfactory (although still clumsy) solutions had been found, in which turret platforms, and later (when aircraft got heavier)catapultswere mounted on battleships,cruisersand seaplane tenders, used to launch scout planes. These aircraft never carried radios and rarely had cameras but could carry bombs, or could be armed to intercept enemy aircraft.

Meanwhile, theaircraft carrierswere also introduced, and these initially carried similar scouts, but eventually distinguished this function from other roles, such as "scout bombers", such as theDouglas SBD Dauntlessand "scout observation" such as theCurtiss SOC Seagull,and the term lost meaning, becoming a generic term for a US Navy aircraft - hence the tern "scout trainer", as with theNorth American SNJ,Beechcraft SNBandVultee SNVseries of aircraft which had no offensive or defence fleet roles, and neither the SNB nor the SNJ operated from ships, while only specialized versions of the SNJ did, and mainly on the Great Lakes, for training.

DuringWorld War II,observation-scouts were essential for battleships and other surface warships during bombardment of land targets, observation-scout, such as aVought OS2U Kingfisher,would spot the fall of ship's shots, and provide corrections, while scout trainers provided flying training.

Due to the improved technology used by today's naval vessels, and the use of ship-launchedUAVsfor the same sorts of "spotting" missions in the 21st century, scouts are no longer needed for long range exchanges.

See also

• Japanese battleshipYamato