In July 1965, The United States Air Force ordered the Training, Advising and Counselling (TAC) to establish an AC-47 squadron. In fact, these gunship trials were so successful that an AC-47 was sent to the United States in early 1965 to provide crew training for the aircraft. The AC-47 Spooky continued to be successfully tested (for the Americans) in early 1965. Its efforts successfully halted the Viet Cong assault. During this attack, the AC-47 spooky fired more than 4500 rounds of ammunition and dropped a total of 17 flares. The first night mission Puff the Magic Dragon flew in occurred on December 23, 1964. On December 14, 1964, the AC-47 Spooky flew in its first daytime combat mission, firing on enemy boats, trails, and staging areas. Testing of the AC-47 first began in Vietnam in late 1964. To appease these pilots, the new aircraft was officially designated the AC-47, meaning attack/ cargo.

However, fighter pilots were upset with the вЂњfighterвЂќ categorization of the plane because they refused to believe that a slow cargo plane could also be a fighter plane. Initially, this new type of aircraft was designated the FC-47, meaning fighter/ cargo. Zangla, 525th Military Intelligence Group, United States Army/ Wikimedia Commons)Д«y mid-December 1964, the conversions to the C-47 had been completed.

This time-lapse photos shows the trace round trajectories. Spooky Experiments Night attack using the AC-47 Spooky aircraft over the Military Assistance Command compound over Pleiku, Vietnam, May 1969. The C-47 was chosen for experimentation because it was a cargo ship, meaning it could hold the huge amount of munition that was required, and because it was propeller-driven, which would allow for the precise maneuvers that would be necessary. The effectiveness of this type of gun-ship depended on the planesвЂ™ ability to direct concentrated fire on specific enemy positions, and enough power and space to carry the necessary armaments that were required. The C-47 was initially chosen as the test plane for the first fixed-wing gunship because it met all the criteria necessary to develop such a weapon. However, it wasnвЂ™t until 1963 that the idea of a side-firing plane became a reality. In fact the concept had been proposed in the years leading up to the Second World War. Modern fixed-wing gunships refer to a fixed-wing aircraft that has laterally mounted heavy armaments, essentially meaning a side-firing plane. After much deliberation, the American Air Force accepted what is now the modern concept of fixed-wing gunship. (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)Д«y 1963, the Viet Cong (VC) were ramping up their guerrilla night activity, and it was becoming increasingly apparent that a better night air effort was necessary for the Americans. C-47 cargo plane, the predecessor to the AC-47 spooky.

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