EG-0067-01
An OV-1C Mohawk, serial #67-15932, was used in a joint NASA/US Army Aviation Engineering Flight Activity (USAAEFA) program to study a stall-speed warning system in the early 1980s. NASA designed and built an automated stall-speed warning system which presented both airspeed and stall speed to the pilot. Visual indication of impending stall would be displayed to the pilot as a cursor or pointer located on a conventional airspeed indicator. In addition, an aural warning at predetermined stall margins was presented to the pilot through a voice synthesizer.
The airspeed and stall speed were computed in real time by monitoring the basic aerodynamic paramenters (dynamic pressure, horizontal and vertical accelerations, and pressure altitude) and other parameters (elevator and flap positions, engine torques and fuel flow). Once the system was designed and installed in the aircraft, a flight test program of less than 20 hours was needed to determine the stall-speed coefficients. Pilots flew it from the Army facility, not from NASA Dryden. Those coefficients were then inserted into the system’s software and test flown over a period of about 10 hours for evaluation.
The Mohawk was developed by Grumman Aircraft as a photo observation and electronic reconnaissance aircraft for the US Marines and the US Army. Due to budgetary constraints, the Marines bowed out early in the development cycle. The first Mohawk (YAO-1) prototype flew on April 14, 1959. The OV-1 entered production in October 1959 and served the US Army in Europe, Korea, the Vietnam War, Central and South America, Alaska, and during DesertShield/Desert Storm in the Middle East. The Mohawk was retired from service in September 1996. A total of 380 original OV-1 Mohawks were produced between 1957 and 1969. 133 OV-1Cs were built, the “C” designating the model which used an IR (infrared) imaging system on reconnaissance missions…Learn more