9/4/2023 0 Comments Gunship iii flares![]() ![]() MacDonald’s gunship idea was passed over, but he resurrected it in 1961 when, as a lieutenant colonel, he advocated transverse firing of rockets and machine guns by liaison aircraft. MacDonald of the 95th Coast Artillery proposed fitting a Piper Cub with a side-firing machine gun for anti-submarine operations. 22 was intended for use in France’s colonial possessions, one of which, ironically enough, would become the venue for US gunships-Indochina. 12 75 mm cannon in a four-engine Bordelaise A.B. In 1932, French military designers installed a fixed side-firing Schneider P.D. The United States did not have a monopoly on the idea. 30-caliber Lewis machine gun on the wing and flew “pylon turns” to keep the gun on target, thus demonstrating the very essence of the concept almost 40 years before it appeared on the battlefield. Fred Nelson experimented with a de Havilland DH-4 at Brooks Field, Texas. Putting a fixed side-firing weapon on an aircraft was first proposed in 1926, when 1st Lt. Whether they were Puffs, Spookys, Spectres, Shadows, or Stingers, the gunships brought intense, lethally accurate fire to the enemy’s doorstep, busting trucks and saving the lives of countless friendly personnel. History, requirements, resources, and-most of all-personalities, all came together at a critical moment to create a piece of side-firing airborne artillery, a weapon North Vietnam considered one of the most important of the war. ![]() In warfare, timing is critical, and few weapons have had better timing than the gunship, the epitome of on-scene firepower in the Vietnam War.
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