OV-10 Bronco
| OV-10 Bronco | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| A U.S. Air Force OV-10 firing a white phosphorus smoke rocket to mark a ground target | |
| Role | Light attack and observation aircraft |
| National origin | United States |
| Manufacturer | North American Rockwell |
| First flight | 16 July 1965 |
| Introduction | October 1969 |
| Retired | US (1995) |
| Status | In limited service |
| Primary users |
United States Marine Corps (historical) United States Air Force(historical) United States Navy(historical) Royal Thai Air Force(historical) |
| Produced | 1965–86 |
| Number built | 360 |
The North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco is an American turboprop light attack and observation aircraft. It was developed in the 1960s as a special aircraft for counter-insurgency (COIN) combat, and one of its primary missions was as a forward air control (FAC) aircraft. It can carry up to three tons of external munitions, internal loads such as paratroopers or stretchers, and can loiter for three or more hours.
The aircraft was initially conceived in the early 1960s through an informal collaboration between WH Beckett and Colonel KP Rice, U.S. Marine Corps, who met at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California, and who also happened to live near each other. The original concept was for a rugged, simple, close air support aircraft integrated with forward ground operations. At the time, the U.S. Army was still experimenting with armed helicopters, and the U.S. Air Force was not interested in close air support.
The concept aircraft was to operate from expedient forward air bases using roads as runways. Speed was to be from very slow to medium subsonic, with much longer loiter times than a pure jet. Efficient turboprop engines would give better performance than piston engines. Weapons were to be mounted on the centerline to get efficient unranged aiming like the Lockheed P-38 Lightning and North American F-86 Sabre aircraft. The inventors favored strafing weapons such as self-loading recoilless rifles, which could deliver aimed explosive shells with less recoil than cannons, and a lower per-round weight than rockets. The airframe was to be designed to avoid the back blast.
Beckett and Rice developed a basic platform meeting these requirements, then attempted to build a fiberglass prototype in a garage. The effort produced enthusiastic supporters and an informal pamphlet describing the concept. WH Beckett, who had retired from the Marine Corps, went to work at North American Aviation to sell the aircraft.
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