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Tuesday, January 26, 2010 - 03:14 AM UTC
Greetings from snowy Ukraine! With this message we announce our new immenent release: # 439 Fairchild AU-23A Peacemaker in 1/48 scale

It will be available in the first 10 days of February, 2010.
The Fairchild AU-23A Peacemaker
Armed gunship, counter-insurgency, utility transport version for the U.S. Air Force. It was used during the Vietnam War in the early 1970s. 35 were built under licence in the USA by Fairchild Industries. All aircraft were later sold to Royal Thai Air Force.

The AU-23 is an all-metal, light-weight, high-wing monoplane manufactured by Fairchild Industries. It has a rectangular, strut-braced wing of constant profile over the entire span. The wing has four mechanically and interconnected inboard and outboard double-slotted, electrically operated flaps. The aircraft has a fixed, conventional landing gear. The pitch axis is controlled by a conventional elevator with electrical and manual trim. Aileron trim is electric and rudder trim is manual. The AU-23A is powered by an Airesearch Model TPE331-1-101 turboprop engine, flat-rated at 650 shaft horsepower (shp). The engine is equipped with a 3-bladed, constant-speed, full-feathering Hartzell propeller that has beta and reverse ranges. The aircraft has five ordnance stations, four wing pylons, and a fuselage pylon. The aft cabin is configured to mount the XM-197 20-mm automatic gun system. Maximum gross weight of the aircraft is 6,100 pounds.

Fairchild Industries ran late in delivering the required number of Peacemakers, so that, well before the test could begin, enemy troops, massing for the March 1972 invasion, dominated the area near Pleiku chosen for the combat evaluation. The tactical situation in South Vietnam and southern Laos combined with the withdrawal of U.S. manpower to force the transfer of all tests to Eglin Air Force Base.
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Comments

hope it has separate flaps and a wealth of detail in the cabin. Great aircraft to model!
JAN 26, 2010 - 04:02 AM
Hi Stephen Finally! many thanks for doing this! Hope it will follow with the PC-6 Turbo Porter, and why not the origine "Porter" Lycoming powered.. ps: I' ve x3 on order... Raphael
MAR 11, 2010 - 04:56 PM
Wow, that's very nice & interesting Are there any detail sets for this one Cheers Nick
MAR 12, 2010 - 10:06 AM
Greetings all; In the middle of our yearly March blizzard the postman delivered this kit to my door. Review will begin this weekend. It looks like there will be another version to this kit as well. Interestingly Roden has some hole drilling templates for the fuselage spine area. Various items go there. 3 decals schemes in this kit (#439).
MAR 19, 2010 - 02:02 PM
The flaps are indeed separate items.
MAR 19, 2010 - 02:05 PM
I have been doing a bit more research on the subject and found this on the minigun installation. ". . .The location of the side-firing gun in relation to the center of gravity made both aircraft tail heavy. In the Peacemaker the condition proved so dangerous that forty pounds of lead had to be inserted under the engine cowling to restore some semblance of equilibrium. To overcome the lack of balance required a heavy hand on the controls and forced the small-framed South Vietnamese to wrestle the control stick with both hands in performing basic maneuvers. As if this were not enough, neither range nor payload lived up to expectation; a minigun ship carrying one thousand pounds and flying a distance of one hundred nautical miles could remain on station just thirty minutes before turning back to refuel. The XM197 Armament System evaluated in this test is similar to the M61 Vulcan 20mm rapid fire cannon. The XM197 consists of three rotating barrels instead of six and has a rate of fire of approximately 400 rounds per minute (rdpm) slow rate, and 700 rdpm fast rate. For the test reported here, the gun was pedestal mounted just behind the pilot's seat in the Fairchild-Hiller Peacemaker Aircraft. The M61 and XM197 20mm guns are automatic aircraft cannons for use against aircraft and ground or seaborne targets. These guns are electrically or hydraulically powered, belt fed or linkless fed, and electrically fired. A round of ammunition is fired through one barrel at a time, as the barrels and rotor assembly rotate once around the rotor housing. . ." (edit note: from "AC Gunships")
MAR 20, 2010 - 03:02 PM
More on ther prototype development. ". . . The first prototype Porter PC -6 made its maiden flight on 4 May 1959 powered by a 254 kW (340-shp) piston engine. The first Turbo Porter, powered by a turboprop, flew in 1961. The Turbo Porter received an engine upgrade in 1963, which increased its power to its present value of 410 kW (550-shp). They were used initially as sport parachute platforms. In the United States, the Porter was manufactured under license by Fairchild Hiller. In service with the U.S. Air Force, it received the designation AU(attack Utility) -23A Peacemaker. In U.S. Army use, it was designated UV-20 Chiricahua. . ." "Chiricahua" is the name for one of the three Native American Indian tribes of the Apaches" Evidently 13 Peacemakers went to the Thai Govt.
MAR 20, 2010 - 03:07 PM
Here's some photos of Thai PC-6s: LINK LINK
MAR 26, 2010 - 03:13 AM
Click here.
MAR 26, 2010 - 07:03 AM
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