Dominion Skytrader The Dominion Skytrader was a prototype STOL utility aircraft built in the United States in the early 1970s . Attempts to market the aircraft continued until the late 1980s , but proved fruitless . The Skytrader was a conventional high - wing , strut - braced monoplane with fixed tricycle undercarriage . The design was optimised for easy freight handling and featured a fuselage of rectangular cross - section with large loading doors to the side and a loading ramp at the rear . The aircraft ' s tail unit was angled upwards from the rear fuselage to facilitate loading operations beneath it , and the main undercarriage was fitted in sponsons on the fuselage sides so as not to intrude into the internal cargo volume . Passenger , freight , executive transport , and water - bomber versions were projected . Development . Work on the aircraft commenced in 1972 , and the prototype flew on 21 April 1975 . Marketing the aircraft proved difficult , however , and despite a flurry of initial interest , by 1977 , only two firm orders are known to have been placed . Two years later , the bank that had been financing the project collapsed and Dominion went bankrupt . The prototype and the program were purchased the following year by Grant MacCoon , and over the next few years were bought and sold by a number of entities , finally becoming the property of a new firm , Skytrader Corporation , in 1984 . Skytrader proposed a revised version of the original design as the Skytrader ST1700 or Conestoga . This had a stretched cabin , T - tail , redesigned nose , wings , and landing gear , and was to be turboprop powered . A scaled - down version was to be offered as the ST1400 Commuterliner . Apart from passenger and freight versions , dedicated military versions were also proposed as the Evader , carrying 26 troops , or the smaller Scout . This would have been able to carry 12 - 15 troops and provision was made for armament in the form of 2 . 75 in air - to - ground rockets . In 1987 , Skytrader announced a deal with Mitsui that would provide $ 20 . 5 million to fund FAA certification of the ST1700 , and initial production of the Scout . The Mitsui money never appeared , and the following year , Skytrader made co - production deals with the government of the Philippines and Samsung , but these did not eventuate either . The final chapter in the Skytrader ' s development was the entry of the Scout in a US Army competition for an intelligence gathering plane . During the late 1980s , the U . S . Southern Command became interested in acquiring a reconnaissance plane which would do well in the rugged terrain and with the clandestine operations that the command was executing at the time . A contest , named Grizzly Hunter , was opened for interested contractors to enter candidate airplanes for consideration . The Scout was entered as a joint project between Skytrader and McDonnell Douglas Helicopter , and was selected as the winning design , receiving the designation UV - 23 . Revisions to the original Scout design included blown wings and new propellers and gearboxes to significantly reduce the aircraft ' s IR and noise signatures . The Skytrader 800 prototype was re - engined at this point , and flew with Turbomeca Astazou XIV turboprops . Before any production of the UV - 23 could be undertaken , however , Grizzly Hunter was cancelled and replaced by a different requirement which was won by the RC - 7 . With the Army order falling through , Skytrader declared bankruptcy and was liquidated in August 1989 . As of 2007 , the prototype lay derelict , with engines stripped , at Washington County Regional Airport , in Hagerstown , Maryland .