Looking for a site for detailed pics of this famous gunship.
Going to do up a semi scale version using my Kyosho DC-3.
Need pics of the gun positions, markings and color variations.

Carlos, the newest issue of Air and Space magazine has a write up on AC aircraft with some pics. Not sure if it is what you need but a check of your local grocery store may be helpful. The mag has a Yellow Super Cub on the cover. Good luck with it.

here are some links I plan on doing the Ziroli AC-47 this winter in "Spooky" colors a more colorful version

http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/8758/ac-47.html
http://www.centercomp.com/dc3/gallery.htm
http://www.ac-119gunships.com/gunshipac47.htm
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/vietnam/ac47.htm
http://www.fourthfightergroup.com/335th/frames/c47.htm
http://www.1stcavmedic.com/glossary-...ac-47-puff.htm
http://www.huris.com/web/def/d8781b.htm
http://www.theaviationzone.com/facts/gunships.htm

one thing to remember when looking at some of the sites is that they list "Spooky" as Puff. Most of the "Puff" pics I have seen it is silver with the green dragon head spooky was camo colored. I believe it is squadron signals puts out a book called gunships that is quite good it has a lot of closeups and other stuff on all the gunships ac-47, c-130, ov -10 and others

Joe

I have an AC-47 gunship on display near me, let me know if you need specific detail pictures, I can get fairly close to it.

That would be GREAT!
I'm looking for pics of unusual features in addition to gun detail, nose art, tail numbers and color.
Thanks,
Carlos

Thanks for the tip, I just got back from the store with one.
Carlos

Carlos, got some pics for you, I'll post a teaser but will have to email the rest after work (higher resolution pics).

Ron

Another teaser.

Hi Carlos,
I was a gunner on AC-47's at Bien Hoa in '68. The reason for the two names was "Puff the Magic Dragon" was the nickname, especially during the early deployment, and "Spooky" was the call sign. There were two major modifications, the early ones used SU-11 gun pods, the kind that were carried under the wings of A-1's, etc. There were two firing through the windows and the 3rd firing out the back door. Later on they were changed to an MXU-450 (I think!) gun module, which carried more ammo and had a faster rate of fire. A window was cut out next to the door for the 3rd gun, which freed up the space by the door.
There were two squadrons that belonged to the 14th ACW, the 3rd and 4th Air Commando Squadrons, coded EL and EN. There were two major color scheme's, one had a gray underside, later versions had a glossy black underside. There were no nose art, at least when I was there in '68, other than the the "Ghost" emblem.
The Silver gunship was one of the prototypes that also had the Dragon painted on the nose. The Squadron book is pretty good, but devotes more pages to the AC-119's and 130's, which I was an instructor. By they way, the AC-130 of today is NOTHING like the 130's we had back then.
If you need any more info, e-mail me and I'll try to help. I'm building a Ziroli AC-47 that had the tail code "274" that crashed on Friday the 13th. There's a correlation between "274 and the 13th, I'm sure you can figure it out!

Jon

"Spooky-RVN's premier fly by night outfit"
When you're hurting enough to call the very best!

Cool Jon I didnt know that part between spooky and puff myself and i had been researching it a lot as I did a top flight (YUCK) c-47 for a guy in bermuda was getting a spooky scheme and I am about to do my Ziroli AC-47 this fall and if I can ever find a nice set of C-130 plans (I like dan Palmers large version if i ever can find someone to swap plans or get a settlement) I want to do the AC-130 with JTO. If you do a construction site for your Ziroli let me know I would like to follow along and hear any construction watches. I am currently vectoring the C-47 for laser cutting.

Joe

Hi,
Here's a shot of the guns.

Here's part of the business end...

Here's a couple more web sites:

http://www.squadron14.com/

http://home.earthlink.net/~aircommando1/

There are two major errors with the Ziroli kit. The first is the dihedral is too "flat". It should be 5 degrees measured on the top of the wing. The 2nd is, while the plans show the correct nose shape, the F/G nose from Ziroli is to "pointed", looks more like an EC-47 nose. There are other, less noticable deviations from scale that aren't worth the trouble of fixing unless you're going to enter it in the Scale Masters, etc., in which case good luck!
Jon

Thanks Jon I plan on entering it into scale events and hadnt had a chance to really look the plans over much yet as I been too busy vectoring everything else. The main thing I always see offscale is the tail but I havent checked nicks plans yet. I will be doing a construction site like my B-25 when I get going hopefully soon.

Joe

I just got back from a bike trip to Nevada where a friend lives. We rode from his house in Gardnerville, all around LakeTahoe and back. It was a beautiful trip, we even got sprayed by a heli carrying a water bucket to a wild fire.
Thanks for all the great info on the Spook planes.
A friend of mine is flying a Zeroli DC-3 with G-45's and it keeps up with the Mustangs and T- Bolts.
The advantage to doing a big gun ship would be all the detail you could do like the guns ( spinning barrels). What happens to the empty cartridges and belt links? Do they fall out of shell-shutes or are they collected?
Carlos

Carlos,
Each ammo can carried 2000 rounds that were linked using frangabile links. When the ammo was loaded, the ammo went in the drum and the links broke apart and went into an empty ammo can for re-use. There was a chute on the opposite of the gun that the brass went down, when the guns were firing, and into another empty ammo can. We spent a lot of time dragging ammo cans! Along with the brass, there were always several live rounds that would go in the can that the gun would clear when it was stopping. Someone on the ground would go through the ammo cans and pull out the live rounds for re-use, the brass was shipped out and melted down I guess. We carried 18,000 rounds, plus several more thousand we would "sneak aboard" if going to a hot target or TIC. TO weight was 29,500 lbs. The guns could fire 3000 or 6000 rounds a minute. It was very rare we ever put 3 guns on fast fire, usually 1 gun on fast fire and the other two on slow fire. It was pretty impressive when we did put all three guns on fast, I have a great picture of them firing that I took leaning out the door. Also carried 40 flares, 20 in the forward flare box and 20 in the box by the door. We flew a lot of alert flights and the pilots would get bored and let some on the crew fly the "racetrack". I got about 200 hrs flying in the right seat, mostly making left turns!. Some pilots would, some wouldn't. I was lucky, my A/C liked me and the co-pilot HATED flying C-47's, so I got a lot of oppourtunities to fly. He used to say that the
T-38 stalled out faster than this piece of s**t could fly. He was probably right!
Jon

Hey guys, I have both ready to start, both are from Bob Sealy, the 47 will be 141" with two Q42s and I have 4 TT 25's to go on the 130 wich has a 102" WS. I'll keep you posted on my progress, the 130 will be first. Thanks...Don

Well I only saw them from the ground and that was enough for me to become a believer!!!!!!! I was very glad that they were on our side and saw first hand the destruction those guns could dish out, not pretty!!!!