[Moose4]

Wow. 36 years, that’s amazing.

The Sherpa (C-23/Shorts 360) is one of the most hideously ugly aircraft in the world, BTW, but it can go a lot of places and haul a lot of stuff, so it gets the job done! I’m actually surprised at this story, I didn’t think the Army had any fixed-wing aviation assets left whatsoever.

}:-)4

[LeoWindhorse]

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/c-23.htm

[B4Ranch]

I’ll bet he’s an expert STOL pilot.

[El Gato]

I didn’t think the Army had any fixed-wing aviation assets left whatsoever.

They've also got various versions of the RC-12. Essentially versions of the Beech/Raytheon Super King Air. Some of them have somewhat "spooky" jobs, and lots of funny "stuff" sticking out of the airframe and wings.

.

A guy I work with used to be an army pilot, but he wasn't too good at the fixed wing stuff, being primarily a helicopter pilot. Still he felt he had to fly everything in his unit on occasion. One of the times, when it had been quite a while since he'd flown a fixed wing, he had to let the WO land the bird. Embarrassing, but smart. (He flew primarily Huey's and Blackhawks)

[cll]

“I didn’t think the Army had any fixed-wing aviation assets left whatsoever.”

The Army still flies several versions of the civilian King Air, namely the C-12 in various configurations. When I retired in 2005 they were also flying the UC-35, a “military” Cessna Citation. Now they’re working with the Air Force to field a Joint Cargo Aircraft to replace both the C-12 and the C-23. It would look something like this:

http://www.c-27j.com/