Were they previously registered to American Warbirds with registration N#s ending with AW?

474, no, 493, no, 418, no, Not sure about 453

There are seven total owned by this same entity. All were ex USMC. It is my understanding that only one was an ex State Dept spray ship. All seven are now for sale. Two are currently flying under gov contract and 2 more are airworthy.

All of the ex State Dept spray ships that Dyncorp operated were civil registered to the shell Corp. American Warbirds Inc and were N registered.

Negative, the State dept birds were clearly registered to;
United States Department Of State
Patrick Air Force Base.
32925.

N15453, S/N155409 was the one at the VAC-TICO. prior to that clearly registered to Dpt of State.

All 4 listed for sale on the OV-10 Squadron site were former State Dept ships

The 4 listed for sale have their respective histories shown
https://www.ov10squadron.com/bronco474/

The Dyncorp spray ships were registered to American Warbirds Inc in MD during the period that I was delivering parts for them to Patrick AFB. Of course they were controlled by the department of state but were actively flying with civilian contract pilots in S.A. Still pretty sure only one of those is in the group for sale.

Maybe E. Huppert will chime in. He flew them back then and knows the history of all of the ones for sale.

All of the 4 listed 4 sale were previously registered to the State Dept and none of them ever registered to American Warbirds inc.

Yes, Dyncorp managed/operated for the State Dept, EAST Corp provided the pilots.

Here is the last flightaware track from one that I had a picture of.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N473AW

It shows last registered to the State Dept. previous registration could have easily been wiped.

Here are a couple more that State Dept controlled but operated under same shell corporation

155501 (MSN 305-112)
|•| New at the factory - February 10, 1969
|•| MART - VMO-4 - NAS Grosse Isle, Michigan - February 27, 1969 thru May 17, 1969
|•| Joe Baugher's Notes: OV-10D - registered Oct 17, 1994 to American Warbirds, Inc of Gaithersburg, MD as N476AW. Registration N476AW cancelled by FAA Mar 24, 2009 as "destroyed"

YOV-10A and OV-10A Aircraft155502 (MSN 305-113)
|•| New at the factory - February 17, 1969
|•| Los Alamitos, California - February 20, 1969 thru May 13, 1969
|•| Joe Baugher's Notes: OV-10D - registered Oct 17, 1994 to American Warbirds, Inc of Gaithersburg, MD as N477AW. In operation with California Department of Forestry as N470DF, Cal Fire No. A505(D)

When the program was just gearing up one of the civilian pilots who was a Bronco enthusiast and wanted to see my project flew one in to nearby Palatka and I brought him to my place to see it. I got to sit in it. It was registered to American Warbirds Inc and still was dark blue with stripes. I had last seen in at Palm Beach County when it was being operated by the ATF.

Interest article about ATF/American Warbirds Inc

https://www.nraila.org/articles/2015032 ... nded-again

ATF took some heat for it

http://www.comeandtakeit.com/fedbatf.html

Both 155501 and -02 show registered to Department of State after 1994

I evaluated the OV-10 as an aerial spray platform for my previous employer. Beaufort County had just gotten theirs operational and provided a lot of feedback, Lee County, Fla had one that they were willing to donate to us. As bad as I wanted it to work, I ultimately ruled it out as too fast. Beaufort sprays at 160 knots and while that works for their mostly coastal and obstacle sparse operating area, we faced a densely populated urban environment with numerous obstacles/challenges. 160 knots at 2-300 feet at night in that jungle wouldn't work for long.

I then pursued the OV-1 which proved to be remarkably well suited to our mission, but at a much higher fuel consumption and maintenance burden.

Link to Bronco squadron update and newsletter


https://www.ov10squadron.com/for-the-sake-of-ceremony/

Great Garrett -14s

Beaufort County’s neighbor down the way, Chatham County, GA ran a few Twin Bo and a helicopter. I loved seeing their bright yellow Twin Bo(s) flying just above the treetops and swamps out of my 3rd floor apartment.

It would have been neat to see an OV-10 doing the same mission!

Beaufort County also used to run a Convair 340 for mosquito control.

A well written article about a typical Bronco FAC mission.

https://airfactsjournal.com/2023/04/sle ... n+the+Job+–+A+Lesson+in+Staying+Alert&utm_campaign=F23044A&utm_content=Tough+Lesson+in+Staying+Alert+%2b+Go+or+No+Go

To counter this pressure, we FACs of the 23rd Tactical Air Support Squadron (callsigns ‘Nails’ and ‘Rustics’) were flying our Broncos along the Lines of Communication (LOCs) leading into Papa-Papa.

Good story. I was a Nail FAC with the 23rd TASS '81-'85 at Davis Monthan AFB flying OA-37's.