The aerospace industry is a big money game, with a handful of dominant firms scooping up generational government contracts worth many billions of dollars apiece. Lockheed. Boeing. Northrop. The consolidated industry doesn’t leave much room for the mom-and-pop competitor or the basement inventor; modern military aircraft are designed through a rigorous and structured design program in sophisticated labs and plants. There is one notable exception, however, a military aircraft with the most humble and domestic of origins: the garage. 

The aircraft? The OV-10 Bronco.  

Built-in a Garage 

In the 1960s, two U.S. Marines, W.H. Beckett and K.P. Rice, lived next to each other in Santa Ana, California. The two soldiers had a habit of getting together and bemoaning the emerging trends of military aviation, namely, the emphasis on swept-wing supersonic fighters and a general exoticism that was influencing weapons design. The two Marines referred to the emerging trends as “the era of boom and zoom,” which they felt was contributing to a lack of emphasis on conventional weapons, and relatedly, a lack of emphasis on aircraft with the ability to perform close air support missions effectively.  

The two men had an idea.  

“What was needed, Beckett and Rice determined was a scrappy observation airplane that could not only find enemy combatants but also attack them on the spot. They envisioned a twin-engine turboprop that would be faster than helicopters, yet slower and more versatile than jets,” Smithsonian reported. 

“Furthermore, and this was revolutionary, the aircraft had to be capable of taking off and landing in so short a space that it could be stationed with battalions in combat areas, not at some far-off air base.” 

Sound Familiar? 

The two men, sitting on their patio, conceived of a platform with characteristics that would eventually appear in the AV-8B Harrier and the A-10 Warthog. But those platforms weren’t in service yet. Nor was an equivalent. 

But the two men, recognizing a coverage gap, were undeterred. And here’s the remarkable part: Beckett and Rice simply set about building the airplane envisioned. It’s true. Right in Rice’s garage. 

“The two men built as much of a full-scale fiberglass model as would fit in Rice’s garage (because of the space limitation, attaching the wings was out of the question), and then began trying to sell the concept of “The System,” Smithsonian reported.  

Landing the Bid 

Initially, the two Marines’s hobby-project was not taken seriously. But after the Navy, Air Force, and Army combined to solicit bids for the Light Armed Reconnaissance Aircraft (LARA), which listed a set of requirements very closely aligned with what Beckett and Rice had envisioned, the garage project suddenly became viable. 

Specifically, what LARA called for was a versatile and light attack/observation aircraft – something that could operate effectively in the jungle terrain that the U.S. was about to become intimately familiar with. The bid called for a twin-engine, two-man aircraft that could heft both cargo and paratroopers. Further, LARA demanded that the new aircraft be able to take off in just 800 feet from a runway, or a simple road. 

About ten proposals were considered. The OV-10 Bronco, which was fundamentally Beckett and Rice’s garage project, albeit with larger specs and more systems, earned the contract.  

The OV-10 Bronco would serve admirably for three decades. Sometimes tinkering in the garage pays off.  

Harrison Kass is a defense and national security writer with over 1,000 total pieces on issues involving global affairs. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.

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