page_title: IAR 823
section_title: Operational history
hierarchical_section_title: IAR 823 / Operational history
caption_attribution_description: English: IAR 823 F-AZLQ at a French airshow
context_page_description: The IAR-823 is a civil and military trainer aircraft built in Romania from 1974 until 1983. It is a conventional low-wing monoplane with retractable tricycle undercarriage. The pilot and instructor sit side-by-side, and two more seats can be fitted behind them. The type was adopted by the Romanian Air Force as a primary trainer, and was also supplied to Romanian and Hungarian aeroclubs and the national flying school of Angola.
context_section_description: Initially they were assigned to the 20th Regiment at Boboc, subsequently some were transferred to the 19th Regiment on the grass airfield at Focsani. Small numbers of aircraft were delivered to the Romanian Air Club, being operated at Brasov, Clinceni, Pitesti, Deva and other airfields.
  12 IAR-823s were deployed to Negoge, Angola in the frame of "Operation Sirius" in February 1981. There, the Romanians put the bases of the ENAM (national military flight school), also having at their disposal 6 IAR-316B Alouette III and 6 BN-2A Islander, all manufactured in Romania. Flight training began already on 18 May 1981, with the first solo sortie of an Angolan trainee taking place on 30 July 1981 on board the IAR-823. Although both the Alouettes and the 823s could be lightly armed, no combat missions were flown, only training ones. A fatal crash occurred on 6 July 1981, when lt-cdr. Gheorghe Preda and Angolan student Ruy Nelson died on board an IAR-823. In December 1982 the Romanians returned home while the remaining 11 IAR-823 - plus the other aircraft - were handed over to the Angolan Air Force.
  In service with the Romanian Air Force there were four crashes, including the one in Angola, all fatal. Operations with the IAR-823 became a problem in the early 1990s: the fuel required for the type was no longer produced in country and had to be imported from Greece, at a time when budget problems plagued the Air Force. Besides, starting from the mid 1980s the much cheaper to operate Yak-52 started entering service. By the mid 1990s it had completely taken over the role of the IAR. There is no official date for the IAR-823's retirement from service, but it seems that it was grounded in the 1995-96 timeframe. All the surviving airframes were put in storage at Brasov.
  Surplus to requirements and in need of a serious overhaul, they were put up for sale. 10 were bought by a private US customer in 1999, followed by another 36, plus all remaining spare parts in 2000. Another 6 were purchased in October 2004 from the Romanian Air Club, The overwhelming majority of these were restored back to flying condition.
caption: IAR 823 F-AZLQ in Romanian Air Force markings at a French airshow
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