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![]() ![]() ![]() Originally accepted in 1958, she flew transport and test missions for ten years before the war in Vietnam called for her conversion to a gunship. Lockheed C-130 USAF tail number 53129 was the first production Hercules aircraft to be accepted by the Air Force. You can even spot one in the new action film, Olympus has Fallen. Nonetheless, every time the US has needed to use force for the past 40+ years, Specter gunships have been there. Of the 55 AC-130s that have been converted over the years, eight have been shot down. These heavily armed but unarmored aircraft fly low and close to the fighting to deliver ordnance on target. By 1972, North Vietnamese truck drivers were handcuffed to their vehicles to keep them from beating feet from their cargo at the first sign of an AC–130. Over a four-year period, these aircraft provided close air support to troops on the ground and fought the War against the Trucks, killing some 10,000 NVA supply trucks along the Ho Chi Min trail. Several of the new transports were pulled from service, fitted with a myriad of armament, and sent to war. The C-130 was modern and could carry nearly four times the load of the old Spooky. The Air force turned to the newly developed four-engine C-130 transport as the answer to the call for a larger gunship platform. The spookiest of these were great aircraft but still needed heavier armaments. These C-47s, armed with as many as 3 GE miniguns and 10 Browning AN/M2 machine guns fitted to fire from the left hand side of the plane, were dubbed Spooky and Puff the Magic Dragon due to their clouds of smoke when firing. South East Asia on close air support missions. ![]()
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