Fairchild C123B Provider

Fairchild C-123B Provider - American military transport plane developed by the Chase firm in the early post-war years. It was initially planned as a glider, but engines were installed in the design later on. After 1953, series production was taken on by the aircraft manufacturer Fairchild. Equipping the U.S. Air Force it started appearing in 1955; apart from the Air Force it also was used by the Coast Guard and the Federal Aviation Administration in Alaska. During the Vietnam War, it was used as a transport, utility plane, VIP plane, and also for carrying out special operations. As well as the Air Force, the C-123B was used in Southeast Asia by the CIA in the guise of the dubiously named airline 'Air America'. In total 302 machines were made of this variant. Some of them were transferred to the Air Forces of Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Venezuela, South Korea, Taiwan and Saudi Arabia.