![]() 0 Years C-47 Gunship conversions, Spooky man hunts from Vietnam to Colombia. At night, flares were thrown out for illuminating the enemy positions and with all light trails from the tracers, the aircraft had the looks of a raging fire spitting Dragon, hence the nicknames “Puff the Magic Dragon” and “Spooky” became later the universal name for this Old Soldier, built 20 years earlier and never designed for an active combat role. While the much faster Jet fighters and Skyraiders made strafing runs with forward firing ammo, the enemy could quickly regroup or run away as the attack plane flew overhead and stopped its firing, But with the AC-47 ( Attack/ Cargo), that plane could give a semi permanent firing action, with intermittent shooting while loitering for hours over the same small area and pinning down the opposing forces. The GE mini guns with electrically driven 6 barrels of the Gatling Gun type, pumped out 3000-6000 rounds per minute! The effect of such hefty “ammo hailstorm” was similar to that of a giant aerial shotgun, used in a combat scene where there was no virtual cover of armor plating or concrete bunkers. The firing action was triggered by the captain who used the port Prop hub and wingtip for aiming, while the tracers gave visual sight of hitting the target area. The captain banked the plane and started a narrow orbit, circling in a pylon turn overhead where VC presence was detected by ground troops. The WWII and Korea Veteran C-47’s were provided with 3 laterally rapid firing guns that were simply placed o n the port side of the aircraft’s cargo floor. 1964 in Vietnam and their controversial start showed instantly tremendous successes in the close air support, so often required in the Vietnamese Jungle combat scene where the Vietcong (VC) could hide and stage ambushes at choice. The first C-47’s converted as “Gunships” flew in Dec. 50 Years C-47 Spooky Gunship conversions, from Vietnam to Colombia. ![]()
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