Fifty years ago, in March 1973, U.S. military forces officially withdrew from South Vietnam after eight long years of conflict. This year at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2023, we’re honoring the aircraft and veterans of the Vietnam War. If you take a stroll out to the Warbirds area, you’ll see a number of Hueys, Skyraiders, and other aircraft of the era. Parked on the far northern end of Warbirds is a rare sight — a C-123 Provider, believed to be one of the few, if not the only one, still flying.
Originally designed by Chase Aircraft in the late 1940s, the C-123 was introduced in the mid-1950s and built by Fairchild. The U.S. Air Force used it primarily as a cargo and military transport aircraft for operation on short and unimproved runways, and it was used exactly for those purposes during the Vietnam War. It also took part in Operation Ranch Hand, defoliating the South Vietnamese jungle. The C-123 attending AirVenture, Thunderpig, is a K-model Provider and is owned and operated by the Air Heritage Museum in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.
Air Heritage’s C-123 was operated primarily as a training aircraft and went to the boneyard in 1981. In the early 1990s, the museum acquired the airplane and spent
about a year getting it into flying condition. Since then, the museum has flown it around the country for air shows, and it’s been featured in a number of TV shows and movies, including American Made, starring Tom Cruise.
Thunderpig pilot Jack McMahon last flew C-123s in the late 1970s and early ’80s with the Air Force Reserve before getting involved with the Air Heritage Museum in 2006. Despite the lengthy gap between flying the Provider for the Reserve and the museum, Jack said it didn’t take too long to reacquaint himself.
“I can’t say it was extremely difficult,” Jack said. “I mean, obviously you had to go through the books and relearn all the numbers, because once we got rid of these airplanes, we had two different models of C-130s [in the Reserve]. So it’s like, ‘Okay, I really don’t remember the numbers from this,’ so you had to get back in the books. Flying it, it took some adjustment. 130s are hydraulic assisted. This is straight mechanical.”
Prior to C-123s and C-130s, Jack flew Convair F-102s and F-106s. Going from a supersonic interceptor to a radial-engined cargo aircraft — that took some adjustment, to say the least.
“My first trip in the 123 after flying a 106, I looked out and I swore the cars were going faster than we were. And I said, ‘I’ve had cars go faster than this airplane.’ So yeah, it was a little bit different. The landing speed on a 106 was far higher than the cruise speed on this.”
Because of the aircraft’s age and design, it can be a bit tricky to fly in certain conditions.
“It was heavily used in Vietnam, so it’s built to go into very short strips, dirt strips. It’ll land within 2,500 feet, sometimes less if you’re really good and practice. So it does that very well, and did that in Vietnam very well. It’s a handful in winds, particularly gusty winds. It has an awfully big tail, short fuselage. I tell people, ‘The only autopilot is the guy in the other seat.’ So you’re constantly flying the airplane, trying to keep it on track at altitude.”
Jack said that being included in the commemoration honoring Vietnam War veterans and aircraft is a “great honor.”
“We certainly appreciate that they even thought about the airplane and bringing it into the ceremony,” Jack said. “The thing I would say is [that] when we go to air shows and some of us are standing in the back of the airplane, as people walk up, I can tell by the expression on the person’s face, pretty much all the time, that person was in this airplane in Vietnam. You can just see the memories flooding back into their thoughts with it. And it’s just a great privilege to be able to say, ‘Come on in, take a look.’”