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In this role, the gunship flew with a crew of eight the pilot, copilot, navigator, mechanic, two ordnance men (to load the machine guns), a flare launcher and a Vietnamese observer. In Vietnam, AC-47s provided murderous firepower to protect helicopter landing zones and flew over the eerie, nighttime jungle, dropping flares on Viet Cong positions. Sometimes these ships flew with the forward half of the cargo door removed and another gun installed in the opening. These 7.62 mm guns were capable of covering every square foot of a football field with one round, in one minute.ĪC-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. 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. They tried the idea with ten, 30 caliber machine guns mounted in a C-47. Captain Terry suggested adapting this procedure to warfare situations by replacing the rope with a line of machine gun fire. The bucket would orbit in a tight circle, suspended from the cargo door, and someone on the ground placed mail in it. The aircraft would circle in a steep pylon turn, lowering a bucket on a long rope. Terry, who had seen DC-3s delivering mail and supplies to remote jungle areas in South America. The idea for the gun ships came from an Air Force officer, Captain Ronald W. What Donald Douglas had designed as a basic passenger airplane evolved into a highly efficient gunship, designated the AC-47. As the Viet Cong activity shifted to nighttime operations the C-47 was virtually born again into a new role, twenty years after production of these airplanes had ceased. By 1961, additional C-47s had been supplied to the South Vietnamese Air Force to help their fight against the increasing threat from the Viet Cong. The United States trained and provided assistance to this fledgling air force. When France yielded independence to Vietnam in February 1955, a small air force was formed with two squadrons of C-47s in the southern half of the country. The USAF became involved in Vietnam in early January, 1953 when it sent teams of mechanics to help the French maintain their C-47s, some of which were from US Air Force reserve stocks.