There's been a lot of chatter in recent VHPA news letters about the TOW. So I sent them this article. not sure when or if they will publish it.

First Army flight of the TOW Cobra (AH-1Q)

Following my second tour in Vietnam, I was assigned to the US Army bell plant activity at Bell helicopter as an Army acceptance test pilot from October 1970 until my retirement in August 1977. My first assignment upon arrival was as a ferry pilot (to learn how “factory spec aircraft should fly, they said). After a year of flying all over the country delivering aircraft, I received orders allowing me to acceptance test new aircraft. In the summer of 1972 Bell was developing the “TOW Cobra”. CW3 Audie Stern was the Army Bell Plant Activity office project pilot for that aircraft and took it to trade shows and various bases to show what it would look like. He had several pieces of “wooden Mock up” gear which he would configure the AG-1G for each show. Audie was also the project pilot for the development of the float equipped OH-58 which was to be deployed to Alaska in a few months time. Since I was also doing a lot of the armament work for the activity, I attended some of the engineering meetings on the TOW development. As luck would have it, Audie was in Alaska training the OH 58 crews in the use of float equipped oh-58As when it came time to fly the first Tow Cobra. The chief of flight test at that time was LTC Bob O’Donald who had previously commanded the Amarillo Bell facility. He came out of his office and asked is anyone could fly the tow cobra. In my cocky way I responded “Hell it’s just another weapons system” and said yes. He instructed me to go to Bell’s experimental plant 6 located on the west side of Arlington Texas Airport and conduct a safety of flight acceptance on the aircraft prior to it being turned over to the Army guys from Edwards for their testing. “ Just do a safety of flight on the bird. Leave the TOW stuff alone.” Ok” I respond, got my Flight gear, jumped in the old Huey and headed to Arlington. On landing, I go to the test pilot office and ask for the flight test engineer and make up a short check list. I told him that I was just doing a safety of flight test and would not mess with the TOW System.
I made a few notes but as far as I could see it was just a Cobra with a new weapon on it.
I did a preflight walk around and got in the bird with my single page of notes and went through a normal crank and systems check per the Maintenance flight Test Manual.
As a precaution, I pulled every circuit breaker that said “TOW” just to make sure I did not inadvertently screw something up. This was to be a safety of flight test, not a systems test.
As far as I could tell, no new placards or warnings had been put on the instrument panel and all the red lines remained the same as the AH-1G. I fired the beast up, did all the standard ground, hover test, and commo tests etc. then flew to the south of Arlington Airport to test the aircraft. I liked to climb to about 5 or 6 thousand feet to do the AH-1 flight tests, completing it with a “VNE” check by taking the Aircraft to the red line to check vibrations at high speed (190Kts). I did the cruise checks and turned east bound to do the dive checks. I entered the dive in a rolling turn and began moving to VNE in 10 knot increments checking the vibration levels Gun Sight and control feel. At about 175 knots the aircraft started a right roll. I eased off on the stick and the roll continued as I followed it through and did a sort of “Modified Split S” as I slowed the aircraft. At about 170kts. it started returning to normal. I checked the SCAS system and it appeared normal and I thought, “that’s the weirdest SCAS hard over I have ever had.” I slowed to below 120kts and turned the SCS off and everything appeared normal. Turning the SCAS back on, I went in 10 knot increments to higher speed and again, at about 175, it rolled and I flew it out much the same as before. At about this time the control tower called me and asked “ Bob Are you OK out there?” And “What are you doing?”
I replied “ I read a while and I fly a while” They replied, “ Your putting on quiet an air show out there ”. I then said, “I am returning to the field” and asked that they have the flight test engineer meet me on the ramp. Meanwhile, on the way back to the airfield, I asked the tower for an FM homing beacon so I could test the FM homing on my way inbound. It did not work. The radio was dead.
On landing, the flight test engineer met me and we discussed the “Hard over” that I had experienced. I informed him that about 175 kts. it rolled on it’s back and he said “Damn.. the VH on this bird is 155 kts. (VH is the point that damage can occur to wing stores etc) I said, “Well there is nothing about that in these notes and the damned redline is at 190kts.” He said it still should not have rolled and we started looking the aircraft over. He said “I think I see your problem” I stood at the front of and looked down the sides of the aircraft and saw what he was talking about. There were Two different TOW launchers on the bird. One was the launcher that all cobra drivers are familiar with and the other had a debris shield on the back that was about a foot in diameter. The Army had not yet chosen the launcher that would be used in production. I missed that on my walk around. What happened was this: As I entered the area of 175 knots the round flange caught the air and caused asymmetrical drag which yawed the aircraft slowly and the SCAS kicked in slowly to compensate until it reached it’s limit and the aircraft began to roll. Fortunately it was slow enough that I could recover by slowing the aircraft and continuing the roll to a modified split S and recover. The Bell pilots had never experienced this because they knew enough to stay below 155Kts. As a result of that flight, the manuals and check lists were changed, Red lines altered, Warning and cautions place on the panel. And Oh yes, The FM radio was now being cooled by the TOW Blower air and when I pulled the TOW circuit breakers I shut off the air and cooked the radio. I made sure that caution went into the manual also.
I flew the next 8 AH-1Q’s off the Mod line at Arlington without incident. Following that fight I made sure I was in all the engineering meetings on new designs that I could attend just to make sure I was never surprised again. That sort of experience get’s rid of “Cocky” fast.
I left the Army in 1977 and went to work for Bell as a design engineer in the Armament Design Group and three years later transferred to Cockpit design and spent a total of 23 years working for Bell before retiring in December 2000.
Bob Taylor CW3 USA (RET)
Life Member VHPA
Life Member VHCMA
Ft. Worth TX.