Damn, not only did my thread get hi-jacked but I'm going to add to it.
Hyena, your just a little off on your descriptions
It was called AC-47 "Spooky" Gunship, carried 7.92mm mini guns not Vulcan cannons. I believe the vulcan cannon came later on the AC-130, which also had a 105mm 20mm, 40mm and several 9mm mini guns.
Anyway back to the AC-47,
The idea for the gun ships came from an Air Force officer, Captain Ronald W. Terry, who had seen DC-3s delivering mail and supplies to remote jungle areas in South America. The aircraft would circle in a steep pylon turn, lowering a bucket on a long rope. The bucket would orbit in a tight circle, suspended from the cargo door, and someone on the ground placed mail in it. Captain Terry suggested adapting this procedure to warfare situations by replacing the rope with a line of machine gun fire.
They tried the idea with ten, 30 caliber machine guns mounted in a C-47. The idea worked and the Air Force replaced the machine guns with three General Electric, six barrel, rotating mini-guns, reminiscent of the Civil War Galting guns. These 7.62 mm guns were capable of covering every square foot of a football field with one round, in one minute.
AC-47 gun ships had three window-mounted electrically operated 7.62 mm machine guns, positioned on a 12 degree angle in the fourth, fifth and sixth port windows. Sometimes these ships flew with the forward half of the cargo door removed and another gun installed in the opening.
The Puff carried 21,000 rounds ( 2,000 pounds of ammunition)and three 7.62mm mini-guns with a fast (6,000 rounds per minute) or slow (3,000 rounds per minute) rate of fire, with 7 crewmembers (2 pilots, 1 navigator, 2 gunners, 1 load master and 1 flight engineer), it operated typically at 3,000 ft., 130 knots airspeed, without armor or escorts and carried 24 to 56 5-million candlepower flares, manually thrown out the door.
From 1964 to 1969, the AC-47s successfully defended 3,926 hamlets, outposts or forts. They fired over 97 million rounds and killed over 5,300 enemy soldiers. No outpost or village under gunship protection was ever lost to the enemy. AC-47s provided murderous firepower to protect helicopter landing zones and flew over the eerie, nighttime jungle, dropping flares on Viet Cong positions.
Upon witnessing the wrath that the AC-47 brought down on the VC attackers that night, he reported that visual effect of the tracers, 1 in every 5 rounds or 20 per second, gave the appearance of dragon's breath. He also tied the roar of the guns into the description. Upon reading the account in the Stars and Stripes, the CO of the 1st Commando Squadron exclaimed "Well, I'll be damned! Puff, the Magic Dragon." from a child's song recently popularized in the U.S. by the trio Peter, Paul and Mary. Captured VC documents later told of orders not to attack the Dragon as weapons are useless and it will only infuriate the monster.
Later gunships included the Spectre (AC-130), Shadow (AC-119G) and Stinger (AC-119K) with increases in airspeed, armor, altitudes, and computer aided guns. The 57 AC-47s stripped away the enemy's advantage of picking out friendly positions to strike and overrun at night.
There was a AC-47 named "Puff" I believe it was the first one made, they field modified a C-47 and if I remember right they used a gunsite from a A-1 Skyraider mounted on the pilots left so he could aim the plane.
Also more C-47's in Vietnam
In April 1962 a unique group of 30 USAF pilots were detailed to serve with the South Vietnamese Air Force in its C-47 squadrons. This permitted the VNAF to release some of its own experienced pilots to form new units for its rapidly-expanding air arm. A second group of 30 USAF pilots replaced the first group in the spring of 1963 and flew with the VNAF until the project ended in December 1963.
These 60 USAF pilots flew VNAF C-47s for flare drops, airborne assaults, airborne resupply, psychological warfare leaflet drops and loudspeaker broadcasts, and constantly-increasing cargo and troop movements. During the 20-month period they were on loan, they flew approximately 25,000 hours with the VNAF, making a significant contribution to its expansion. During the period of Dirty Thirty operations, 97 Air Medals and 2 Distinguished Flying Crosses were awarded.
The term "Dirty Thirty" was originated because of the round-the-clock duty hours which required them to wear their flying suits constantly. This once resulted in a passing comment about "one of those dirty pilots" and the term "Dirty Thirty" was born.
AirScrew
