Lockheed YO-3A Quiet Star

[flateric]

http://pimaair.org/project.php?rid=21

 

[Mark Nankivil]

Greetings All -

A donation to our Museum earlier this year included a Pilot's Handbook for the YO-3A. Attached are a few drawings and diagrams from the manual.

Enjoy the Day! Mark

 

[AeroFranz]

very nice, Mark. Thanks!

 

[Stargazer]

Beautiful, Mark. Thanks, and have a great New Year!

 

[Maveric]

a nice pic of the YO-3A (Aviation Magazine)

 

[yahya]

I have a question related to the Lockheed YO-3 Quiet Star avionics suite from the Vietnam war. This site https://randallmalmstrom.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/lockheed-yo-3a-quiet-star/ contains some photos documenting the cockpit from the 1960/1970s, which contained legacy avionics suite compared to the one from the flight manual listed above.

I was able to recognize the following avionics pieces:

C-6533 ICS
AN/ARC-51 UHF COM
Collins 618F-1A VHF COM
AN/APX-72 IFF

What bothers me is the presence of the ID-250 RMI with two needles in the center of the instrument panel and the ID-249 Course indicator on the right side of the instrument panel. I do not have the proper YO-3A flight manual to consult with, and I am not sure if these indicators were used with the AN/ARN-21 TACAN or the AN/ARN-14 VOR navigation systems on this bird, or with the ADF. The control panel for the nav is unfortunately not visible, so it remains a puzzle whether TACAN, VOR or ADF were originally used in the early YO-3A. Can our experts please help verify what types of TACAN, VOR and ADF were used in the early setup?

Source: https://randallmalmstrom.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/lockheed-yo-3a-quiet-star/

 

[yahya]

I did some small research regarding the nav equipment of the YO-3A.

It seems to me that there were two TACAN setups. The early one consisted of the following items:

AN/ARN-21 TACAN (or later, particularly 28V DC-powered solid-state ones) + ID-250 RMI + ID-249 Course indicator.​

The newer one as described in the scans of pilot's manual as posted above consisted of the following pieces of rig:

AN/ARN-52(V) TACAN with the C-2010 control head + ID-387 TACAN indicator + ID-663 TACAN indicator.​

As far as the ADF is concerned, it seems that this setup was used on newer YO-3As:

AN/ARN-89 ADF with the C-7392 control head + the ID-1351 ADF indicator​

I do not know which ADF, if any, was used on the older version. However, if the ID-250 RMI was ideed used, I guess the compatible AN/ARN-59 or the AN/ARN-83 could have been installed.

Any suggestions and comments are welcome.

 

[riggerrob]

a nice pic of the YO-3A (Aviation Magazine)

With a cockpit only one seat wide, the fuselage is clearly based upon the earlier Schweitzer 2-32, 3-seater glider.

The late RG-8A surveillance airplane was based upon the wider TG-7A motor-glider used by the US Air Force Academy.

 

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

https://imgur.com/xkLHe1n

Footage of Lockheed Q-Star N57135 converted from a Schweizer SGS 2-32 glider as a proof of concept during the initial development of the YO-3