AC-119 Gunship

I'm sure many of you know about the AC-130 Spectre gunship, a ground attack plane developed from the C-130 transport. And the sharp tacks out there probably know the AC-47 Spooky, which was really the first fixed wing gunship and pioneered the tactics used even today. Today's topic is a plane that gets a lot less attention, but is still pretty neat.



This is the AC-119 Shadow.
Like the AC-47 before it, the Shadow was developed from an earlier, somewhat outdated transport aircraft. There were large numbers of C-119 Flying Boxcar aircraft in the hands of the Air Force Reserve and that meant that there would be little or no retraining necessary for pilots, as well as large numbers of spare parts in inventory. The AC-47 Spooky gunships were not as effective as had been hoped and the C-119 was thought to be a good platform for expansion and refinement of the gunship concept and technology. With better flight characteristics and an increased payload, the Shadow was able to stay airborne longer, increasing the range and time on station. They also were able to carry more munitions, increasing their effectiveness. Very few AC-119s were ever made (52), and they only served for about 3 years before being retired by the USAF in 1971.



Introduced in November of 1968, the first 26 AC-119Gs were armed with four SUU-IIA/IA gun pods, with the GAU- 2/A miniguns firing the 7.62mm NATO at more than 12,000 rounds per minute. The Shadow usually carried 1500 rounds per weapon on missions, for a total of 6,000 rounds. That is an amazing amount of firepower to come flying over the hill right when you think your attack on the evil imperialist Yankees is going so well. It also carried the LAU-64/A flare launcher with 60 Mk. 24 flares to fool heat seeking missiles, and had increased armor protection over its forebearer.
Later a new version of the gunship was brought online, known as the AC-119K Stinger. Firepower had been greatly increased by the addition of two M61 Vulcan 20mm cannon, which were capable of much more armor penetration than the somewhat anemic .30 caliber full metal jacket machine gun rounds. The 20mm rounds were capable of destroy almost all ground targets from bunkers to trucks to tanks. The explosives helped too. The AC-119Ks made great strides in the fire control and target acquisition realms by also being equipped with the AN/APN-147 Doppler Navigation radar, AN/AAD-4 Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR), AN/APQ-133 side-looking beacon tracking radar and AN/APQ-136 search radar. This enabled a very good chance of locating large enemy concentrations at night, from beyond the range of most ground fire. Targets like truck convoys were particularly vulnerable to this type of attack and the AC-119Ks were used a great deal on the Ho Chi Minh Trail for this purpose.
During their service in the Vietnam War, only five AC-119s were lost to all causes.

Specifications (AC-119G)

General characteristics

• Crew: 6 (day), 8 (night)
• Length: 86 ft 5¾ in (26.36 m)
• Wingspan: 109 ft 3¼ in (33.31 m)
• Height: 26 ft 7¾ in (8.12 m)
• Wing area: 1,400 ft² (130 m²)
• Empty weight: 40,125 lb (18,200 kg)
• Max takeoff weight: 62,000 lb (28,100 kg)
• Powerplant: 2× Wright R-3350-85 "Duplex Cyclone" radial engines, 3,500 hp (2,610 kW) each

Performance

• Maximum speed: 180 knots (210 mph, 335 km/h)
• Cruise speed: 130 knots (150 mph, 240 km/h)
• Range: 1,680 nm (1,930 mi, 3,100 km)
• Service ceiling: 23,300 ft (7,100 m)

Both the AC-119 Shadow and the C-119 Flying Boxcar are easily identified by their somewhat rare double tail booms and fins.

C-119 #566 "Green Hornet" on display at the Museum of Aviation, Warner Robins, GA.

XB-70 Valkyrie

In my opinion, this is one of the most interesting-looking bombers to ever fly, the XB-70 Valkyrie, designed by North American Aviation. It was intended to be a supersonic, nuclear- armed, deep penetration bomber. It was designed way back when military planners thought that the B-52 would be retired by the late 1960s. (They were way wrong and the common belief is that the last pilot of the B-52 has not yet been born.)

The Valkyrie was designed to fly at or above 70,000 feet and at speeds up to Mach 3 to avoid being targeted by interceptor fight aircraft, the only effective way of defending against high altitude bombers at the time of the XB-70's design. Only two were ever built and the program was canceled in 1961 when it became apparent that the new surface to air missiles made high altitude attack untenable. This was most evident when the U-2 "Dragon Lady" piloted by Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960 by a volley of SA-2 Guideline missiles. The Valkyrie was later used for high speed and altitude testing, and some of their technology resurfaced in the B-1 Lancer and SR-71 Blackbird.

3 views of the XB-70

The Valkyrie was an advanced design, making use of honeycombed steel and titanium to combat the high temperatures that the airframe reached at supersonic speeds. The XB-70 was built around a large delta wing, common in designs of the time, and used supersonic technologies from the Mach 3 Navajo. One of its most interesting features is the use of compression lift. This created a shock wave below the aircraft that would increase the lift of the wing by 5%, giving the Valkyrie greater ceiling, range, and efficiency. The compression lift was generated by a wedge on the engine inlets. The design of the Valkyrie was different from almost every other aircraft in its time, in that the outer sections of the wing was hinged so that it could be pivoted down up to 65 degrees. The effect was to increase the directional stability of the the XB-70 when it was traveling at supersonic speeds and strengthen the effect of the compression lift. When the wingtips were pointed down, more of the shock wave would be trapped under the wings, increasing the lift.

General characteristics

Data from USAF XB-70 Fact sheet

• Crew: 2
• Length: 185 ft 10 in
  
• Wingspan: 105 ft 0 in
  
• Height: 30 ft 9 in
• Wing area: 6,296 ft²
  
• Airfoil: Hexagonal; 0.30 Hex modified root, 0.70 Hex modified tip
• Empty weight: 210,000 lb
  
• Loaded weight: 534,700 lb
  
• Max takeoff weight: 550,000 lb
  
• Powerplant: 6× General Electric YJ93-GE-3 afterburning turbojet
  • Dry thrust: 19,900 lbf each
  • Thrust with afterburner: 28,800 lbf each

Performance

• Maximum speed: Mach 3.1 (2,056 mph, 3,309 km/h)
• Cruise speed: Mach 3.0 (2,000 mph, 3,200 km/h)
• Range: 3,725 nmi (4,288 mi, 6,900 km) combat
• Service ceiling: 77,350 ft (23,600 m)
• Wing loading: 84.93 lb/ft² (414.7 kg/m²)
• lift-to-drag: about 6 at Mach 2
• Thrust/weight: 0.314

Early designs featured wing tip fuel tanks that could be jettisoned with the wing tips

Sadly, one of the XB-70s was lost in a terrible collision between the Valkyrie and a F-104 Starfighter in 1966. The F-104 pilot and the co-pilot of the XB-70 were killed and the pilot of the Valkyrie severely injured by the clamshell escape pod that closed on his left arm as he ejected.

XB-70 Valkyrie seconds after impact with a F-104 Starfighter