December 21, 2019
Cargo Plane Returns Home for Museum Exhibit
August 20, 2017
Work on the C-123 has resumed in July and August. Left engine had the liquid lock removed from the cylinders. Cowl flap actuator motor replaced and tested. All it needs is to fill the oil tank and it is ready to start. The right engine carb heat control cables have been replaced and the cowl flaps checked one at a time and lubed. Two elevator hinge brackets need replaced and a rudder bearing. The plan is now to fly it home this September/October.
June 18, 2015
C-123 UPDATE: The restored ailerons, rudder and elevators have been installed! Today, under the extreme heat of the Ft Lauderdale sun, the Aztec Airways crew completed the installation of the C-123 control surfaces by installing the rudder and elevators. Thank you to everyone involved in this project! A special thank you to the Broward County Sheriff's Office Aviation Unit for the use of their ramp to park the C-123 while work is completed on the aircraft. Photos provided by Tom Sheridan and Kevin Warwick.
February, 2015
The museum's Fairchild C-123 is one major step closer to coming home! The C-123 control surfaces are finished and ready to return to Ft Lauderdale to be reinstalled. The plan is to do this in March and fly the C-123 home to Hagerstown in April or May. Keep checking the museum website and Facebook page for homecoming date and details.
December 23, 2013
C-123 Fabric Covered Control Surfaces brought to Hagerstown for a Recover
After further inspection of the control surfaces the decision was made that a complete recover was necessary considering the age of the fabric and the many patches already on the fabric. On December 17, the rudder, elevators and ailerons of the museums Fairchild C-123 were removed from the aircraft and then transported to Hagerstown for a complete recover. A volunteer fabric recovering crew will do the work over the next several months.
November 10, 2013
The Hagerstown Aviation Museum is in the process of preparing it's Fairchild C-123 Provider N681DG to fly home to Hagerstown, Maryland. This Vietnam War era veteran was manufactured in 1956 at the Fairchild Aircraft Company in Hagerstown. The US Air Force used the C-123 to transport troops and supplies in and out of some of the most diffcult and dangerous airfields during the Vietnam War. Of the over 300 C-123’s built only a handful still fly today. Acquired by the museum a year ago, this C-123 will join the museum’s collection of twenty historic aircraft, most of which were built in Hagerstown.
A crew from the museum recently traveled to Ft Lauderdale, Florida, on November 6th, to inspect the aircraft in preparation for a ferry flight. The C-123 is in good overall condition with a few items still needing work which require time and money. To complete this work and fly this veteran aircraft home to Hagerstown the museum is asking for your support. You can make a donation to the C-123 fund by clicking on the C-123 Donate Here button. By making a donation you will be recognized with your name being printed in the museum’ s New Pegasus magazine and on a special donor plaque mounted inside the C-123. You will also receive a Certificate of Appreciation and an invitation to a C-123 Donors Reception. For a donation of $100 or more, you will also receive a special two hour C-123 DVD of seven original Fairchild films showing the C-123 in production, in testing and in its many uses around the world!
Thank you to all the donors who are funding the effort to bring a Fairchild C-123 home to Hagerstown! Also, thank you to our flight crew and mechanics who are giving of their time, knowledge and experience! This is a real community project to help preserve Hagerstown's aviation heritage.
June, 2015
The Hagerstown Aviation Museum was pleased to host the grant awards ceremony and is very grateful to the Mary K Bowman Historical and Fine Arts Fund Board and the Community Foundation for the grant to help bring the museum's Fairchild C-123 home to Hagerstown!
December 12, 2012
We have exciting news to share with you! After many years of searching, the Hagerstown Aviation Museum has finally found an airworthy Fairchild C-123 Provider. This is a rare opportunity for the museum to complete its collection of Hagerstown built military cargo aircraft. With your help, the museum’s goal of bringing a Fairchild C-123 home to Hagerstown can become a reality.
THE MUSEUM NEEDS YOUR HELP TO BRING THIS PLANE HOME!
Following the C-82 Packet and C-119 Flying Boxcar, Fairchild Aircraft built 303 C-123 Providers from 1954 to1958. More than 10,000 Fairchild employees worked on this plane and other Fairchild products during the 1950’s. Used during the height of the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s as an Air Force cargo and troop carrier aircraft, the C-123 went on to become one of the workhorses of the Vietnam War. Dependable and sturdy, the C-123 transported troops and supplies into and out of some of the most difficult and dangerous airfields. This C-123 will become a memorial not only to those who designed and built the aircraft but also to those who flew and maintained C-123’s while serving our country. Vietnam veterans will be honored by a permanent exhibit inside the aircraft.
With your help, the C-123 will come home to be on permanent display alongside the museum’s C-82 and C-119. This aircraft’s homecoming will mark both the fulfillment of a dream for the museum, as well as the monumental achievement of having all three aircraft together in Hagerstown, where they were built. Fairchild, with the C-82, C-119 and C-123, pioneered military cargo airplane design throughout the 1940’s and 1950’s. Many of Fairchild’s unique design features are still used in cargo aircraft produced today!
Since the homecoming of the C-82 and C-119, thousands of visitors of all ages and from around the world have toured the aircraft. The C-123 will join the museum’s C-82 and C-119 with educational museum exhibit space inside its large fuselage. During the many museum events throughout the coming years it will be open for public tours during which visitors are encouraged to climb into the cockpit and sit in the pilot’s seat. This unique experience could well inspire visitors to explore their interest in aviation, aerospace, engineering, transportation and history.
YOUR DONATION HELPS PRESERVE HAGERSTOWN’S HISTORIC WINGS!
The Hagerstown Aviation Museum now owns nineteen aircraft, thirteen of which were built in Hagerstown, making this the largest museum-owned collection of historic aircraft in the State of Maryland. The aircraft have been acquired either from individual donors or through funds donated by museum members and supporters. The museum’s ongoing mission to preserve Hagerstown’s unique ninety year aviation heritage has only been made possible through the outpouring of support from people like you.
Thousands of people worked on the C-123 project in Hagerstown. Honor their memory by helping to bring home one of the last flying C-123’s in the world!
We thank the community of supporters who came together to raise the funds necessary to bring home the C-82 in 2006 and C-119 in 2008. With your help we can do it again! Imagine the excitement of homecoming day when Hagerstown’s very own C-123 lands on the Hagerstown Regional Airport runway to join the C-82, C-119, PT-19’s and other museum aircraft built by the people of Fairchild Aircraft!
The museum’s goal is to raise $70,000 to cover the costs to return this C-123 home to Hagerstown. You are invited to join in the preservation of Hagerstown’s aviation heritage by making a donation today. You will be recognized with your name being printed in a future New Pegasus magazine and on a special donor plaque mounted inside the C-123. In addition, your donation can be in memory/honor of a person/s you would like to recognize. You will also receive a Certificate of Appreciation and an invitation to a C-123 Donors Reception. For a donation of $100 or more, you will receive a special C-123 DVD!
