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Ground-attack aircraft and close air support gunship
Douglas AC-47 Spooky is a ground-attack aircraft and close air support gunship. It was built by Douglas Aircraft Company. Reported operators include United States Air Force (former) Philippine Air Force (historical) Royal Lao Air Force (historical) Khmer Air Force (historical) Colombian Aerospace Force.
Technical data
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Sourced dimensions beside a 1.75 m human reference.
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Ground-attack aircraft and close air support gunship
Douglas Aircraft Company
In service within the Colombian Aerospace Force
United States Air Force (former) Philippine Air Force (historical) Royal Lao Air Force (historical) Khmer Air Force (historical) Colombian Aerospace Force
53
1963–1965 (US military conversions) 1987 and 1993 (Colombian conversions)
1965
1964
C-47 Skytrain
7: pilot , copilot, navigator, flight engineer, loadmaster and 2 gunners
64 ft 5 in (19.63 m)
95 ft 0 in (28.96 m)
16 ft 11 in (5.16 m)
987 sq ft (91.7 m 2 )
18,080 lb (8,201 kg)
33,000 lb (14,969 kg)
2 × Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp 14-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 1,200 hp (890 kW) each
230 mph (370 km/h, 200 kn)
175 mph (282 km/h, 152 kn)
2,175 mi (3,500 km, 1,890 nmi)
24,450 ft (7,450 m)
33.4 lb/sq ft (163 kg/m 2 )
0.15 hp/lb (0.25 kW/kg)
3 × 7.62 mm General Electric GAU-2/M134 miniguns , 2,000 rpm or 10 × .30 in Browning AN/M2 machine guns 32 × Mk 24 flares
The AC-47 was a United States Air Force (USAF) C-47 (the military version of the DC-3 ) that had been modified by mounting three 7.62 mm General Electric miniguns to fire through two rear window openings and the side cargo door, all on the left (pilot's) side of the aircraft, to provide close air support for ground troops. Other armament configurations could also be found on similar C-47-based aircraft around the world. The guns were actuated by a control on the pilot's yoke. The guns to be active for firing would be selected by an aerial gunner on a control panel on the right side of the cargo bay. Normally, two aerial gunners would be part of a normal crew. They would load the guns, clear malfunctions, and do inflight repair as well as select which gun(s) were online for the pilot to fire. It could orbit the target for hours, providing suppressing fire over an elliptical area about 52 yd (47.5 m) in diameter, placing a round every 2.4 yd (2.2 m) during a three-second burst. The aircraft also carried MK-24 Mod 3 parachute flares it could drop to illuminate the battleground.
Puff's first significant success occurred on the night of 23–24 December 1964. An FC-47 arrived over the Special Forces outpost at Tranh Yend in the Mekong Delta just 37 minutes after an air support request, fired 4,500 rounds of ammunition, and broke the VC attack. The FC-47 was then called to support a second outpost at Trung Hung, about 20 miles (32 km) away. The aircraft again blunted the VC attack and forced a retreat. Between 15 and 26 December, all the FC-47's 16 combat sorties were successful. On 8 February 1965, an FC-47 flying over the Bồng Sơn area demonstrated its capabilities in the process of blunting a VC offensive. For over four hours, it fired 20,500 rounds into a VC hilltop position, killing an estimated 300 VC troops.
The 4th ACS deployed to Tan Son Nhut Air Base , Vietnam, on 14 November 1965. Now using the call sign Spooky , each of its three 7.62 mm miniguns could selectively fire either 50 or 100 rounds per second. Cruising in an overhead left-hand orbit at 120 knots air speed at an altitude of 3,000 feet (910 m), the gunship could put a bullet or glowing red tracer bullet (every fifth round) into every square yard of a football field-sized target in potentially less than 10 seconds. As long as its 45-flare and 24,000-round basic load of ammunition held out, it could do this intermittently while loitering over the target for hours.
One of the most publicized battles of the Vietnam War was the Battle of Khe Sanh in early 1968. More than 24,000 tactical and 2,700 B-52 strikes dropped 110,000 tons of ordnance in attacks that averaged over 300 sorties per day. During the two and a half months of combat, fighters were in the air day and night. At night, AC-47 gunships kept up constant fire against enemy troops and provided illumination for the base.
The AC-47D gunship should not be confused with a small number of C-47s that were fitted with electronic equipment in the 1950s. Prior to 1962, these aircraft were designated AC-47D. When a new designation system was adopted in 1962, these became EC-47Ds . The original gunships had been designated F C-47D by the USAF, but with protests from fighter pilots, this designation was changed to A C-47D during 1965. Of the 53 aircraft converted to AC-47 configuration, 41 served in Vietnam and 19 were lost to all causes, 12 in combat. 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.
Airman First Class John L. Levitow , an AC-47 loadmaster with the 3rd SOS, received the Medal of Honor for saving his aircraft, Spooky 71 , from destruction on 24 February 1969 during a fire-support mission at Long Binh . The aircraft was struck by an 82-mm mortar round that inflicted 3,500 shrapnel holes, wounding Levitow 40 times, but he used his body to jettison an armed magnesium flare, which ignited shortly after Levitow ejected it from the aircraft, allowing the AC-47 to return to base.
In 2006, Colombia started operating five armed Basler BT-67 (Colombian Air Force designation : AC-47T), known by civilians as avion fantasma (ghost plane), on counter-insurgency operations in conjunction with Sikorsky AH-60 Arpia armed helicopters and Cessna A-37 Dragonflys against local illegally armed groups. The BT-67s are armed with .50 cal (12.7 mm) GAU-19/A machine guns slaved to a forward looking infrared system. They also have the ability to carry bombs. At least one has been seen fitted with one GAU-19/A and a 20 mm cannon, most likely a French-made M621 . The BT-67s are C-47/DC-3s modified by the Basler Corporation of Oshkosh, Wisconsin , and are not variants of the Douglas AC-47.
South Africa converted some C-47s to gunships by installing gun mounts on a rotating platform on the rear of the aircraft and used them similarly to a helicopter gunner. South African "Dragon Daks" were known to fit 20 mm cannons
In 1967, Thailand converted its first AC-47D installing it the SUU-11/A minigun pods. It kept converting a few more airframes and also received some former Khmer Air Force AC-47Ds from Cambodia in late 1975. Thai AC-47s also were equipped with a combination of two .50 cal machine guns and an M197 20mm Electric cannon .
US conversion of C-47 with M134 7.62-mm minigun
( Thai : บ.จล.๒ ) Thai variant with 2 .50 cal machine guns and an M197 20mm Electric cannon .
Length: 64 ft 5 in (19.63 m)
Wingspan: 95 ft 0 in (28.96 m)
Height: 16 ft 11 in (5.16 m)
Wing area: 987 sq ft (91.7 m 2 )
Empty weight: 18,080 lb (8,201 kg)
Gross weight: 33,000 lb (14,969 kg)
Powerplant: 2 × Pratt & Whitney R-1830 Twin Wasp 14-cylinder air-cooled radial piston engines, 1,200 hp (890 kW) each
Maximum speed: 230 mph (370 km/h, 200 kn)
Cruise speed: 175 mph (282 km/h, 152 kn)
Range: 2,175 mi (3,500 km, 1,890 nmi)
Service ceiling: 24,450 ft (7,450 m)
Guns: 3 × 7.62 mm General Electric GAU-2/M134 miniguns , 2,000 rpm or 10 × .30 in Browning AN/M2 machine guns 32 × Mk 24 flares
Reference text from Wikipedia contributors, used under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Douglas AC-47 Spooky equipment records. Variants, orders and quantities are shown as reported in each inventory source; coverage is incomplete.
ColombiaAir Force exact named equipment holdings: AC-47T Spooky (Fantasma). Active, operational-reserve and training units excluding equipment in store; November 2025 IISS assessment. Named service only; no parent-force or national total inferred. Source role: AIRCRAFT / ATK. Original estimates, ranges, reporting names, reserve, lease and employment scopes retained; nested included counts are not added. Missile-system quantities mean launchers, not rounds. No readiness, crew, carried weapon, payload, factory-production or future order count inherited.
United States Air Force (former) Philippine Air Force (historical) Royal Lao Air Force (historical) Khmer Air Force (historical) Colombian Aerospace Force
Equipment reference ↗