North American OV-10 Bronco

[Joe Copalman]

Man, that was a long time ago. 

My favorite part of that first visit was when one of the old Rustic FACs who had quite a bit of time over Cambodia in one of the now-Colombian airframes looked inside the cockpit and casually said "I see nobody ever fixed that corroded piss-tube."

Also, still pretty shocking that all the aircraft arrived with the ejection seats armed. 

[Chris Kennedy]

Chris, both are true.  I've been an OV-10 nut since about 1968 when the first prototype was tested here by Garrett.  My association with Marsh started when Joe Copalman introduced me to Floyd Stilwell at the early phases of the upgrade program. I'd met Bill Osmon when he worked at Marsh a couple of years before that through my job.  At any rate I got to know many of the folks at Marsh pretty well and was involved in doing some photogrpahy for them throughout the programs for the FAC and the DOS.

Interesting. Thanks for the update.

[bilwor]

North American Rockwell OV-10G+ "Bronco" (c/n 305-103)(BuNo 155492)(RLU-1 Black Ponies, Combat Dragon II Program NAS Fallon & Nellis AFB)




North American Rockwell OV-10G+ "Bronco" (c/n 305-103)(BuNo 155492)(RLU-1 Black Ponies, Combat Dragon II Program NAS Fallon & Nellis AFB)



TUS 08/16/13

The two aircraft bureau numbers 155481 and 155492) are among about a dozen former Marine Corps OV-10D+ models that were previously operated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. When the ATF scaled down its plans for an air arm in the late 1990s, its OV-10D+ aircraft were turned over to the Department of State Air Wing to be used for counter-narcotics operations in Latin

NASA received the two G models (an upgrade program offered by Marsh Aviation in Arizona, which was originally developed by the Colombian Air Force, using the same Garrett T76G-420/421 turboprops used on the OV-10D, but with four-bladed Hartzell propellers and an off the shelf sensor turret.) which will join their existing Bronco fleet used for scientific research. BuNo 155481 was registered as N34457 and BuNo 155492 was registered as N3634U

After Congress deleted $17 million from the plan to send four aircraft to Afghanistan, Pentagon officials obtained permission to re-channel funds from other programs and revived Combat Dragon II – not in the combat zone but stateside, at NAS Fallon and Nellis AFB – with a the two OV-10G+ Broncos 15481 & 15492. And it appears that whatever modifications the Navy wanted done were completed in-house at Patuxet River, MD, and the aircraft assigned to RLU-1 have Black Pony insignia as a nod to the heritage of VAL-4.

The Combat Dragon II program, a Limited Objective Experiment (LOE), is aimed at demonstrating that a small, turboprop-powered warplane can be effective in "high end/special aviation" missions of the kind encountered in Afghanistan.

[Joe Copalman]

Whoa.  Whoa. 

Whoa.

Did these take off, or just fly approaches?  I figured they'd be coming to the southwest at some point, just didn't know when.

[Scott Youmans]

COOL!

[bilwor]

They took off after a stop at Atlantic
bill

[Scott Youmans]

OV-10D BuNo 155409 at Marsh June 10, 2005

[Scott Youmans]

OV-10G BuNo 155481 at Marsh Aviation, March 10, 2006.

[Scott Youmans]

OV-10G 155492 at Coolidge, AZ

[Scott Youmans]

OV-10A 68-8308

[Joe Copalman]

OV-10G 155492 at Coolidge, AZ

Love this shot, Scott.  Did Marsh do any spray-rig work for the DOS fleet?  This one looks like a much cleaner install than the bulky pack under the fuselage on the most of the other spray-birds I've seen.

[Scott Youmans]

Joe,

Thanks!  Yes, Marsh had their own completely different, and as you noted, much cleaner installation.

[Scott Youmans]

First OV-10A modified by Marsh. Photo taken during a demo for some USAF brass. This was a very low and slow pass with full flaps and carrying lots of power, the deflected slipstream providing a substantial proportion of the lift.  Notice the open "Gipper" doors at the leading edge of the flaps that direct high velocity air from the lower surface up and over the double slotted flaps.

[Jeff D. Welker]

Cal Fire OV-10D Bronco

I've been wanting to photograph an OV-10 for a while now, but things just never came together for me......until today. Many thanks to Scott Youmans for inviting me to photograph these bad boys. While it was overcast most of the day, we were blessed with some great sunset light that bathed these beauties in some warm winter tones. This photograph was taken right before the light got really good. More to come. Thanks again Scott  

[Scott Youmans]

You're welcome Jeff.  Beautiful shot!  The classic OV-10 head on view, Welker style!