AC-47 Spooky

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AC-47 Spooky
An AC-47D, 43-49010, on the ground at Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base, June 1970. A C-47 is displayed at the Air Force Armament Museum marked as this aircraft.
Role Fixed-wing gunship
Manufacturer Douglas Aircraft Company
Introduced 1965
Status In service in Colombia
Primary users United States Air Force
Vietnam Air Force
Royal Lao Air Force
Colombian Air Force
Developed from C-47 Skytrain

The Douglas AC-47 Spooky (also nicknamed "Puff the Magic Dragon") 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 ground-attack aircraft was needed in some situations when ground forces called for close air support.

Contents

[edit] 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 .30 in (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 close air support for ground troops. It could orbit the target for hours providing suppressing fire. Coverage given by a Spooky was over an elliptical area approximately 52 yd (47.5 m) in diameter, placing a round every 2.4 yd (2.2 m) during a 3-second burst.

The plane carried 24,000 rounds of minigun ammunition and flares, which it could drop to light up the battleground.

AC-47

The aircraft was vulnerable to ground fire due to the age of its airframe. Further gunship designs, the AC-119 gunship and the AC-130 gunship, were developed based on newer cargo airframes.

When the AC-47 was introduced there were no preceding designs to gauge how successful the concept would be. The USAF found itself in a precarious situation when requests for additional gunships began to come in. It simply did not have enough miniguns to fit additional aircraft after the first two conversions. The next four aircraft were equipped with 10 .30 in (7.62 mm) AN/M2 machine guns. It was quickly discovered, however, that these weapons, using ammunition stocks from WWII and Korea, jammed easily, produced large amounts of gases from firing, and, even in ten-gun groups, could only provide the density of fire of a single minigun. All four of these aircraft were retrofitted to the standard armament configuration when additional miniguns arrived.

The AC-47 initially used SUU-11/A gun pods that were installed on locally fabricated mounts for the gunship application. Emerson Electric eventually developed the MXU-470/A to replace the gun pods, which were also used on subsequent gunships.

[edit] Operational history

AC-47 at Nha Trang Air Base in South Vietnam

The AC-47D gunship should not be confused with a small number of C-47s which were fitted with electronic equipment in the 1950s. Prior to 1962, these aircraft were designated AC-47D. When a new designation system was adopted in 1962, these became EC-47Ds. In August 1964, years of fixed wing gunship experimentation reached a new peak with 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 a 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 the Armament Development and Test Center (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 were initially mounted on locally fabricated mounts, which essentially strapped gun pods intended for fixed wing aircraft (SUU-11/A) onto a mount allowing them to be fired remotely out the port side. 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 FC-47D by the United States Air Force, but with protests from fighter pilots, this designation was changed to AC-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 Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base. By war's end, the USAF lost 19 AC-47 Gunship Is, to all causes.[1]

MXU-470/A Minigun modules in an AC-47.

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.

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 Dragonflys against local illegal armed groups. These are most likely the five BT-67s purchased by Colombia with .50 in (12.7 mm) machine guns (of unknown type) slaved to a Forward Looking Infrared (or FLIR) system.[2] The BT-67 is a variant of the C-47/DC-3 made by the Basler Corporation of Oshkosh, WI. These "Turbo Dakotas" feature Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67R turboprops, 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 guns of numerous types, various medium and heavy machine guns, and larger autocannon (South African "Dragon Daks" were known to fit 20 mm cannons).

[edit] Operators

[edit] Current Operators

 Colombia
 El Salvador
 Thailand

[edit] Former Operators

 Cambodia
 Laos
 Rhodesia
 South Africa
 South Vietnam
 United States

[edit] Specifications (AC-47)

General characteristics

  • Crew: 8: pilot, copilot, navigator, flight engineer, loadmaster, 2 gunners and a South Vietnamese observer
  • Length: 64 ft 5 in (19.6 m)
  • Wingspan: 95 ft 0 in (28.9 m)
  • Height: 16 ft 11 in (5.2 m)
  • Wing area: 987 ft² (91.7 m²)
  • Empty weight: 18,080 lb (8,200 kg)
  • Loaded weight: 33,000 lb (14,900 kg)
  • Powerplant: 2× Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radial engines, 1,200 hp (895 kW) each

Performance

Armament

  • Guns:
    • 3× .30 in (7.62 mm) General Electric GAU-2/M134 miniguns, 2,000 rpg or
    • 10× .30 in (7.62 mm) Browning AN/M2 machine guns
  • 48 × Mk 24 flares

[edit] In popular culture

German Thrash metal band Sodom's 1989 album Agent Orange, revolving largely around Vietnam War themes, features a track named "Magic Dragon". The album's cover art drawing also depicts the gunner of an AC-47 in action.

The development and early deployment of the AC-47 is the subject of The Gooney Bird by William C. Anderson. Anderson went to Viet Nam to research this novel, which features a fiction story written around a number of historical facts.

In the film The Green Berets an AC-47 strike enables the American and South Vietnamese forces to retake their firebase, after losing it in an all-night battle.

[edit] See also

Related development

Comparable aircraft

Related lists

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hobson, Chris. Vietnam Air Losses, USAF/USN/USMC, Fixed-Wing Aircraft Losses in Southeast Asia 1961-1973. 2001. ISBN 1-85780-1156
  2. ^ [http://www.fuerzasmilitares.net Colombia: Seguridad & Defensa

[edit] External links

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