North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco (N429DF)

wow

V Smart Bronco Limo

That's a CalFire spotter plane parked outside their facility in Hemet.

I am a complete neophyte with respect to this site, but I love seeing all the action photos of cool planes. My question is what was this plane designed for? It looks like a lot of work went into it for some specific mission. If it is indeed for spotting fires, what about the design makes it better than so many other planes?

A. beautiful aircraft. I wish that I would have got one out of UPT. I got a C-7A Caribou instead.

The North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco is an American twin-turboprop light attack and observation aircraft. It was developed in the 1960s as a special aircraft for counter-insurgency combat, and one of its primary missions was as a forward air control aircraft.

Tyler Ballance...The OV-10’s are flown by contract pilots working for DynCorp with a CAL FIRE Air Tactical Group Supervisor in the other seat, responsible for managing the incident airspace and coordinating the air tankers and helicopter operations over the incident.

In other words, they act just like FAC's did during Vietnam directing the other aircraft on and off the target.
This coordinates the fire suppression evolution and prevents midair collisions.

J Dempsey, I trust 'mentor' and DiCenso provided useful insight into the OV-10 history. I would like to add another capability of the OV-10 that the USMC put to good use in Vietnam, which Cal-Fire might value. The Bronco center section can carry a fully equipped squad of marines! I had the honor of being allowed to observe a fire-fighting organization (non-coast Western USA) using OV-10s to relocate “hot shot teams” of firefighters reacting to a flame front in the containment phase. It was remarkably well suited to the task. I then asked why, with the increasing popularity of crop-duster class aircraft for spot containment drops, they did not use the OV-10 for that as well. I found the response interesting. It was explained that the Bronco was “way too valuable” as an observation platform because of its attack aircraft agility and its ability to put, not one but two, pairs of eyes everywhere needed without “an acre of wing” obstructing the view, adding, “not to mention the ability to provide emergency asset relocation.”

Superb lighting and composition Jake! Love me some Bronco, Saw my first one in South-East Asia, back in the day. Always impressed by them. I'd love to clock some time in one.