Gunship iii forum full#

The success of the AC-47D triggered ‘Project Gunship II’ and ‘Project Gunship III’, resulting in the Lockheed AC-130A Spectre, Fairchild AC-119G Shadow and AC-119K Stinger, respectively. In December 1964, AC-47D ‘Spookys’ took part in 16 combat sorties, each of them accomplished successfully, cementing the gunship’s place in the USAF’s inventory. The ‘Spooky’ crew fired roughly 4,500 rounds of ammunition before the enemy retreated. The aircraft helped repel a Viet Cong attack on a Special Forces outpost at Tranh Yend in the Mekong Delta. Also known as ‘Puf the Magic Dragon’ or ‘Dragonship’, the AC-47D first saw active combat over Vietnam just before Christmas 1964, armed with three 7.62mm GAU-2/M134 miniguns or ten 30-in Browning AN/M2 machine guns. The restart saw the replacement of the C-131B with a C-47D, which was subsequently rebranded as the Douglas AC-47D ‘Spooky’, a type that was to pave the way for gunships as we know them today. The project was reactivated and subtly renamed Project Gunship. Tailchaser was suspended due to a lack of funding, but was subsequently revitalised after Capt Ron W Terry returned from Vietnam, impressed by the role C-47s and C-123s were fulfilling orbiting fortifications during night attacks and acting as flare ships. The turn itself forms an imaginary cone shape, which harmonises the gunship’s armaments towards its apex. This is created when three parameters (speed, altitude and angle of bank) come together. A pylon turn is demonstrated when an aircraft circles an area in such a manner that its wingtip points towards the ground, creating a fixed turning centre. This arrangement was related to a technique that was dubbed the pylon turn, which has since formed the basis of modern gunship engagement tactics and is still the manoeuvre of choice for gunship crews today. A Convair C-131B modified with a single GAU-2/A minigun mounted on the left-hand side of the fuselage at a downward angle was used initially.

Gunship iii forum full#

Fast-forward to the 1960s, with the Vietnam War in full flow, and Project Tailchaser directed by Capt John C Simons, was spearheading fixed-wing gunship development.