Interstate Cadet

Interstate Cadet
An L-6 of the USAF Museum
General information
TypeUtility monoplane
National originUnited States
ManufacturerInterstate Aircraft and Engineering Corporation
Primary userUnited States Army
Number built574
History
First flight1940
VariantsArctic Tern

The Interstate Cadet is an American two-seat tandem, high wing, single-engine monoplane light aircraft. Around 320 of these aircraft were produced between the years 1941 and 1942 by the Interstate Aircraft and Engineering Corporation based in El Segundo, California. The construction techniques employed were a welded steel tube fuselage, wood (spruce) wing structure with metal ribs, and fabric covering, all of which were fairly standard in the 1940s.

An Interstate Cadet, flown by aviator Cornelia Fort and an unknown student, was one of the first aircraft (if not the first) to be attacked by IJNAS Japanese naval planes en route to the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1941.