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The 'Douglas AC-47 Spooky' was the first in a series of gunships developed by the United States Air Force during the Vietnam War. It was felt that more firepower than could be provided by light and medium attack aircraft was needed in some situations when ground forces called for close air support.

Contents

Design and development

Operational history

Operators

Specifications (AC-47)

References

External links

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Design and development

The AC-47 was a United States Air Force C-47 Skytrain (the military version of the DC-3) that had been modified by mounting three 7.62 mm General Electric miniguns to fire through two rear window openings and the side cargo door, all on the left (pilot's) side of the aircraft. Other armament configurations could also be found on similar C-47 based aircraft around the world. The guns were actuated by a control on the pilot's yoke, where he could control the guns either individually or together, though gunners were also among the crew to assist with gun failures and similar issues. Its primary function was for close air support for ground troops, both U.S. and South Vietnamese. Once called into action, it could loiter, orbiting the designated target, sometimes for hours, providing suppressing fire. A three-second burst from all guns, according to Air Force reports, would put one round in every square foot of a football field sized target. (That is doubtful since a football field is 160ft by 360ft or 57600 sq. ft. and at 4000 rounds per minute per minigun one would get 600 rounds total. Moreover, the plane only carried 24,000 round of ammunition.) Its high ammunition supply meant the AC-47 was highly unpopular with those on the receiving end of its fire, and extremely popular with the troops it supported (who nicknamed it ''Puff the Magic Dragon''; there was even penned a version of the popular tune dedicated to the gunship). In addition to the miniguns, it also carried flares, which it could drop at will to light up the battleground.
Due to the age of its base airframe, the aircraft was very vulnerable to ground fire. Consequently, further gunship designs, the AC-119 gunship and the AC-130 gunship were developed, based around newer cargo airframes.
When the AC-47 was introduced, it was the first of its kind in and there were no preceding designs to gauge how successful the concept would be. When requests for additional gunships began to come in, the USAF found itself in a precarious situation. It simply did not have enough miniguns initially to fit additional aircraft after the first two conversions. The next four aircraft were in fact equipped with 10 AN/M2 .30 caliber (7.62 mm) machine guns. However, it was quickly found that these weapons, using ammunition stocks from WWII and Korea jammed easily, were extremely dirty in terms of gases produced from firing, and 10 guns could only provide the density of fire of a single minigun. When additional miniguns arrived, all four of these aircraft were retrofitted with to the standard armament configuration.
As has been mentioned before, the mounting hardware initially used on the AC-47 simply used SUU-11/A gun pods that were installed on locally fabricated mounts for the gunship application. Eventually, Emerson Electric developed the MXU-470/A, a purpose built mount, which replaced the gun pods, and was also used on subsequent gunship aircraft.

Operational history

In August 1964 years of fixed wing gunship experimentation reached a new peak with the intiation 'Project Tailchaser'. This test involved the conversion of a single Convair C-131B to be able to fire a single GAU-2/A Minigun at downward angle out of the left side of the aircraft. It was discovered that even using crude grease pencil crosshairs it was very easy for a pilot flying in a pylon turn to hit a stationary area target with relative accuracy. Testing was conducted at Eglin AFB by ADTC.
By October, a C-47D under 'Project Gunship' was converted to a similar standard as the 'Project Tailchaser' aircraft, but instead with a total of 3 miniguns. These weapons were initially mounted on locally fabricated mounts, which essentially strapped gun pod versions of the guns (SUU-11/A) onto a mount that allowed it to be fired remotely out of the left side of the aircraft. This aircraft was sent for use by the 4th Air Commando in the Republic of Vietnam for operational testing. By mid-1965, a total of 6 aircraft were operating with the 4th Air Commando, and by fall of 1965, there were 20 more. The original gunships had been designated 'F'C-47D by the United States Air Force, but with protests from fighter pilots, this designation was changed to 'A'C-47D during 1965. Eventually the 4th Air Commando was absorbed into the 14th Special Operations Wing (SOW), and AC-47Ds were assigned to the 3rd and 4th Special Operations Squadrons (SOS), as well as, later to the 432nd Tactical Fighter Wing (TFW) at Udon Royal Thai Airbase (RTAB). By war's end, the USAF lost 19 AC-47 Gunship I's, to all causes.^[1]
As the United States began Project Gunship II and Project Gunship III, many of the remaining AC-47Ds were transferred to the Vietnam Air Force (VNAF), the Royal Lao Air Force (RLAF), and to Cambodia, after Prince Sihanouk was deposed in a coup by General Lon Nol.
John L. Levitow was an AC-47 loadmaster on the February 24, 1969 mission that earned him the Medal of Honor.
In the 1950s, a small number of C-47s were fitted with electronic equipment designed to calibrate and test for accuracy the navigational aids then in use. At the time, these aircraft were designated AC-47. When the universal designation system was adopted in 1962 these aircraft were redesignated EC-47A.
Retrofitted AC-47s are still in use in Colombia, where they are known by civilians as ''Avion fantasma'' (ghost planes). They are successfully operated by the local airforce in COIN operations in conjunction with AH-60 "Arpia" helicopters (an armed variant of the UH-60) and A-37 Dragonfly fixed-wing aircraft against local illegal armed groups. These are mostly likely the five BT-67s purchased by Colombia with 12.7mm machine guns (of unknown type) slaved to a Forward Looking Infrared (or FLIR) system. For more information see Colombia: Seguridad & Defensa. The BT-67 is a variant of the C-47/DC-3 made by the Basler Corporation of Oshkosh, WI. These "Turbo Dakotas" feature PT6A-67R turboprops made by Pratt & Whitney Canada, driving five-bladed Hartzell propellers, along with essentially overhauling the basic airframe.
Variants of the AC-47 based on various iterations of the airframe including the BT-67, have been used by Laos, Cambodia, South Africa, and Rhodesia, to name just a few, and with a variety of weapons configurations including gatling weapons of numerous types, various medium and heavy machine guns, and larger autocannon (South African "Dragon Daks" were known to fit 20 mm cannons).

Operators

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★ Royal Cambodian Armed Forces
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★ Colombian Air Force
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★ Royal Lao Air Force
;Rhodesia

★ Rhodesian Air Force operated locally built gunship modification of C-47 aircraft.
;South Africa

★ South African Air Force
;South Vietnam

★ Vietnam Air Force
;

★ Royal Thai Air Force
;

★ United States Air Force

Specifications (AC-47)

References

1. Hobson, Chris. ''Vietnam Air Losses, USAF/USN/USMC, Fixed-Wing Aircraft Losses in Southeast Asia 1961-1973.'' 2001. ISBN 1-85780-1156

External links

★ USAF museum Douglas AC-47D "Spooky"

★ AC-47 at Theaviationzone.com

★ AC-47 at Globalsecurity.org

★ Puff The Magic Dragon Southeast Asia lyrics

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