FAIRCHILD AU-23 PEACEMAKER

The Fairchild AU-23 Peacemaker was an American Cold War transport, anti-partisan and direct fire support aircraft. The prototype flight took place in 1971. The drive was provided by a single Garrett TPE-331-1-101F engine with a capacity of 650 HP. The plane could be armed with various configurations of on-board weapons (e.g. 20mm XM-197 cannon) and underslung (e.g. 250 and 500 lb bombs). The AU-23 Peacemaker plane is a development of the civilian Fairchild Porter machine. It was constructed for the use of American troops operating in Vietnam, and its main task was to conduct operations against the Viet Cong and provide fire support to its own infantry. However, in the course of field tests and limited participation in activities, it turned out that the structure did not meet the requirements set for it. First of all, it was very slow, had not the best rate of climb, and also lacked armor, which, given the nature of the missions to be performed by AU-23, was a big mistake. In the end, virtually all of the Fairchild AU-23 Peacemaker were donated to Thailand.