OV-10B Bronco Demo Team



Meier Motors in Bremgarten, Germany is a company renowned for it’s high quality work restoring vintage aircraft to flying condition. One of their current projects is a Hawker Sea Fury, an original aircraft which flew at Lübeck on the target-towing duties before relinquishing them to the Bronco. Hence our special interest and in the lead-up of our return visit to Schwenningen-am-Neckar a visit was kindly arranged.

Arriving on Friday afternoon, in glorious weather, we were welcomed by Matthias Dorst who is in charge of the public relations of the company. A sneak peak of the hangars was followed with cold beers and a great dinner in the nearby town.

On Saturday morning a full guided tour of the facilities of Meier Motors was given by Matthias Dorst. First we visited the restoration hangar where a number of unique aircraft are carefully restored by a highly qualified team. We could witness first hand that the aircraft are restored to not less than mint condition. One of the bigger projects is the Sea Fury, which is being restored to its original red colors, as when it flew out of Lübeck with RFB. We already have hopeful visions of one day flying our Bronco next to this Sea Fury, just as in the days gone by during the early seventies.

The amount of work and detail they put in the restoration process is amazing. Once restored, the aircraft leave the Meier Motors facility better than new. We also visited the “active” aircraft hangar where the flying aircraft are parked. This houses a great collection of several P-51 Mustangs, a Yak 3, a Yak 11, a Mk.VIII Spitfire, an incredible matt black Corsair and a few trainer aircraft. All are in great flying condition and do regularly attend airshows around Europe.

After the visit, we had a very nice surprise in our hat for Udo Stamer, a former winch operator on the Bronco when still in active service. He was offered the opportunity to fly in the Bronco on the transit flight to Schwenningen-am-Neckar. It was a very special moment for Udo to fly in the very seat on which he had spent so many hours more than 20 years ago. It was a really enjoyable visit to Meier Motors and great to see the professionalism they put into their aircraft projects. We would especially like to thank Matthias Dorst, Achim and Elmar Meier and Hans-Joachim Fisher for the great hospitality!