Douglas O-25

The Douglas O-25 was a U.S. Army observation biplane of the early 1930s, developed from the O-2H by replacing its Liberty engine with a 600 hp Curtiss V-1570 Conqueror. The label 'Douglas 0258' is a garbled rendering of the O-25 designation, in which the leading zero should be the letter O. Built by the Douglas Aircraft Company, the two-seat O-25 retained the welded steel-tube fuselage and fabric-covered wooden wings of the O-2 family while gaining markedly better performance: top speed rose to about 157 mph and service ceiling to over 22,000 ft.

The first production version, the O-25A, used the geared V-1570-7; a Prestone-cooled variant became the XO-25A. About 84 O-25-series aircraft were built, fifty of them O-25As on 1930 contracts. The type served in the Army's standard observation role, reflecting the steady refinement of the long-running O-2 design.