Fairchild OV-12A Demonstrator

[Loach Driver]

Does anyone have any information on the Fairchild Porter aircraft N352F that served as the company demonstrator for the proposed OV-12A version? In particular I am trying to find out the colour of the demonstrator in 1967/68 when the aircraft appeared in the aviation press of the day.

 

http://www.pc-6.com/history/2011.htm

 

Fairchild referred to this version as the "Armed Porter" while the US Navy were going to assign it the designation of OV-12A if it had been procurred for riverine operations in Viet Nam. Flight Global and Aviation & Space Week both carried small articles on this airplane and published black and white photos. It is hard to tell what colour exactly the airframe is painted. It is either white or very light grey. I am leaning towards a white finish but I am not sure. Does anyone know what colour she was?

 

I have the BPK 1/72 kit on order and it features decals for the Peacemaker demonstrator which was also N352F. Some stores from the spares box and a little scratch-building will let fit it out as the proposed OV-12A which might make for an interesting model. Thanks for any assistance anyone can offer.

 

LD.  

Edited August 17, 2018 by Loach Driver

[Steven H. McLain]

Dear Sir,

 

  I believe the color would have been, COIN GRAY,  FS-36473.  Testors/Model Master used to make FS-16473 Aircraft Gray.  

[Loach Driver]

Thanks Steve. I'd been leaning towards the colour being light grey. Thanks for the info and the FS number for the colour it was likely to have been panted in.

 

LD.

[Dutch]

L.D.  Thanks for sharing the neat link.  Question: what is the difference between an AU-23A and a OV-12A?  Armed porters were already in use in Vietnam, so why change the designation?  Just curious. R/ Dutch

[Loach Driver]

I think the OV-12 designation is a US Navy one while the USAF designated the Porter as the AU-23A. I guess the USAF had assigned the -12 designation to something else. That's my understanding of the difference.

 

LD.

[thatguy96]

I'm not sure how long the Navy actually pursued the OV-12A project, but they canceled it before receiving any planes as far as I know and that designation appears to have existed entirely on paper. When the USAF acquired Armed Porters as part of the Credible Chase/Pave Coin projects, they asked for and got their own designation, AU-23A. Also note that when the US Army later acquired Porters for unarmed missions, they requested and got a third designation, UV-20A, rather than using something like UV-12B or U-23B.

Edited September 21, 2018 by thatguy96