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Of the 53 aircraft converted to AC-47 configuration, 41 served in Vietnam and 19 were lost to all causes, 12 in combat. [4] Combat reports indicate that no village or hamlet under Spooky protection was ever lost, and a plethora of reports from civilians and military personnel were made about AC-47s coming to the rescue and saving their lives.
With the addition of the two types, the 14 SOW for a time in 1968 was flying eight different aircraft from ten different bases in South Vietnam. The 14 SOW was inactivated in 1971. Limited numbers continued to be operated out of Thailand as late as the fall of 1972, but the AC-119 was phased out shortly after from the US Air Force.
South Vietnam lost 1,018 aircraft and helicopters from January 1964 to September 1973. [6] 877 Republic of Vietnam aircraft were captured at war's end (1975) [7] Of the 2,750 [8] aircraft and helicopters received by South Vietnam, only about 308 survived (240 flew to Thailand or US warships [9] and 68 returned to the United States [10]).
One of the first seven AC-130A aircraft deployed to Vietnam was AF serial no. 53–3129, named First Lady in November 1970. This aircraft was a conversion of the first production C-130. On 25 March 1971, it took an anti-aircraft artillery hit in the belly just aft of the nose gear wheel well over the Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos. The 37 mm shell ...
Douglas AC-47 Spooky: Ground-attack aircraft and close air support gunship: Douglas Aircraft Company: Developed from the Douglas C-47 Skytrain, it itself developed from the acclaimed Douglas DC-3. Succeeded by the Fairchild AC-119 & the Lockheed AC-130. [8] First deployed over Vietnam in 1964. [9] 1964 [10] 1965 53 Bell AH-1 Cobra: Attack ...
They left as first-rate military aircraft headed for combat in Vietnam in a variety of missions. [ Note 1 ] EC-47s were also operated by the Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodian Air Forces. [ 14 ] A gunship variation, using three 7.62 mm miniguns, designated AC-47 "Spooky" , often nicknamed " Puff the magic dragon ", also was deployed.
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In 1964, during the Vietnam War, [2] the popular Douglas C-47 Skytrain transport was successfully modified into a gunship by the United States Air Force with three side-firing Miniguns for circling attacks. At the time the aircraft was known as a "Dragonship", "Puff, the Magic Dragon" or "Spooky" (officially designated FC-47, later corrected to ...