NHC said last night that it would take very little for a tropical depression or storm to form, which turned out to be the case. There isn't much that a recon plane could have added about the system that wouldn't already be apparent in the radar and surface obs, since the system was so close to the coast. Given the already strong wind field to the north of where the center formed, it was a tropical storm waiting to happen and it happened as soon as there was evidence of a closed circulation. One thing a plane might tell us is the max winds in the NE quadrant. So far, there has been no evidence of tropical storm force winds that I am aware of, and the radar velocities are only maxing out at 40 knots, if that.