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Introduction

History​

The North American OV-10 Bronco is a twin turboprop, multipurpose aircraft.

Originally designed in the 1960s by North American Aviation, it quickly gained a reputation for its versatility, ruggedness, and ability to operate across a range of tactical missions. With its counter-insurgency configuration, the Bronco was tailored to meet the needs of military forces engaged in asymmetrical conflicts, where precise observation and effective fire support are paramount.

Main identification features include high mounted, straight wing; a large glass-enclosed cockpit; twin tail booms; and swept vertical stabilizers with a high et horizontal stabilizer.

Original version is equipped with two Garrett T76 engines (military version of TPE331 engine), each developing 715 shaft horsepower.

The aircraft can fly at low altitudes with stability, as well as land and take off from short, unprepared airstrips, enabling access to remote or rugged areas inaccessible to other aircraft.

Over the decades, the OV-10 Bronco has seen extensive use by numerous armed forces worldwide, demonstrating its versatility and effectiveness across a variety of operational theaters. Its legacy endures to this day, with some modernized variants and civilian applications in fields such as firefighting and environmental monitoring.

Developer notes​

Original Bronco production version is the OV-10A, and was extensively used by the various USA air forces. Other variants have been created later for the export. In Europe, the OV-10B variant was produced for Germany and used as target tug. Its differences compared to the A version are:

  • Transparent plastic dome instead of rear cargo door.

  • Simplified rear cockpit with less instruments and no flight controls.

  • No sponson/stub wings under the fuselage, as there is no need to carry weapons.

Our work is based on the OV-10 Bronco from MEAC (Musée Européen de l’Aviation de Chasse), a museum in Montélimar, France. Their aircraft is an OV-10B, still airworthy and flying in several airshows along the year. It has been transformed to look externally like an OV-10A, with a US Marines livery.

Hence, all the liveries we reproduced have the same OV-10B interior, but we created both A and B exteriors (with and without sponson, with glass or solid dome).

This project would not have been possible without the help from MEAC and its staff, that we thank very much for their help and support since several years.

Special thanks to Donald and Russ for their precious help during the beta testing. Their experience as OV-10 pilots has been key in order to develop an accurate reproduction in the simulator.

We also want to thank all the other persons who proposed their help during the project.

This manual is written based on real Bronco documentation we had access to while developing the aircraft. It has been adapted to apply to our representation in the simulator.