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Google for Lockheed YO-3 aircraft, essentially a Sweitzer sailplane with 5 or 6 bladed slow moving propeller, engine, and a long muffler. It was a dog to fly, being under powered and over weight, but never took a round of enemy fire, since it pretty much flew at night and Charlie never heard it coming. There is an alumni website for YO-3 guys.
The FBI had a couple of these Army surplus planes at Pt. Mugu in the late '70s. Used them in the Patty Hearst kidnapping, etc. I talked to the crew chief, who told me that if one flew over in the dark about 50 feet overhead, all you'd hear was about the same as a flock of birds at that height, like ducks or geese, not honking.
NASA has or had one of the final versions, 3 paddle blade wood prop, to carry microphones to test helicopter noise, flown in close formation. Based at an old (Moffat?) Navy airfield at the south end of the San Francisco Bay.
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