Gunships - Inspiration.

[Weaver]

This is what you get when FACs try to be fighter jocks. The pairs of rockets are there to mark the target then get your a$$ out of the way before the big boys show up. Anything else can get you killed.

Well yes, but then FACs often had the experience of telling the grunts that the F-4s were 10 minutes out and getting the reply "we haven't got 10 freakin' minutes!".

I think it was the USMC who ordered the M60s removed from their Broncos so that pilots wern't tempted to go in too close to support troops.

[Weaver]

More light gunships:

The Pilatus PC-6 aka Fairchild AU-23 Peacemaker was operationally trialled in Vietnam in the early 1970s under the PAVE COIN programme:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_AU-23_Peacemaker






THe Helio AU-24 Stallion was also trialled under the same programme. This is the aircraft shown in the first post on here carrying four Sparrows as a joke. Real-world armament was a side-firing M-197 three-barrelled 20mm gatling gun and five hardpoints, the same as the AU-23:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helio_AU-24_Stallion

[Weaver]

You can improvise gunships too. This pic shows a Browning M2HB being fired from the door of a De Havilland Dove of the Katangan Air Force during the Congolese Civil War. The aircraft was allegedly being flown by Jan Zumbach, a Polish ex-RAF ace with 12 kills to his name in WWII.



Pic from here: https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/The_Siege_of_Jadotville/5-1907518/&page=5

Whirlybirds do a conversion set for Doves in the Congo, which contains resin and etched parts, but I can't find out exactly WHAT parts, so I don't know if it covers this aircraft or not.

[ysi_maniac]

This can be a scaleorama project with a 1/72 Ju-88 and a 1/48 Ju-87

[Doug K]

All these real world photos are closing off so many ideas that might have been whiffed! Amazing contraptions.

[zenrat]

I was looking at the Airfix DH Heron kit WRT this GB today.
But it's such a graceful aircraft I don't think In could bring myself to turn it into an agent of destruction.
The Special Hobby Northrop Delta on the other hand...

[PR19_Kit]

Perhaps a squad of gentlemen firing shotguns through the Heron's windows?

Purdeys of course. 

[Doug K]

Perhaps a squad of gentlemen firing shotguns through the Heron's windows?

Purdeys of course. 

In tweed & plus-fours...

[scooter]

Just a random thought, if anyone's thinking of doing a YB-40 - Transfer the 327th from 8AF to 9AF for CAS during Operation Cobra.

[kitnut617]

Just a random thought, if anyone's thinking of doing a YB-40 - Transfer the 327th from 8AF to 9AF for CAS during Operation Cobra.

And I've got a conversion to do one of those too --- 1/72 of course --- 

[Mossie]

I'll just drop this here...
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/20782/boeings-been-granted-a-patent-for-turning-the-b-1b-into-a-gunship-bristling-with-cannons

[PR19_Kit]

Bristling?

All two of them? 

[kerick]

Somebody's been smok'n a little something somewhere at Boeing.....
This sounds like an idea from a comic book. Nobody is going to put an extremely valuable B-1 bomber within gun range of target that will probably shoot back. We have AC-130 that can do it better and JDAMs if that's not enough. Unless Boeing is playing some sort of legal game.

[Mossie]

Bristling?

All two of them? 

In the article there are more images showing different potential layouts, some with four cannon. It mentions the possibility of using larger guns too.  Also, the B-1B has three weapons bays, so that's a potential 6 cannon of that particular layout.

[Mossie]

Somebody's been smok'n a little something somewhere at Boeing.....
This sounds like an idea from a comic book. Nobody is going to put an extremely valuable B-1 bomber within gun range of target that will probably shoot back. We have AC-130 that can do it better and JDAMs if that's not enough. Unless Boeing is playing some sort of legal game.

A patent just means Boeing are hedging their bets.  The Bone is getting elderly now and they'll be proposing all sorts of potential roles in the hope the USAF will bite, even if it's a wild idea as keeping it in service a few years longer will mean a lot of income for Boeing.  Apparently the B-1s were used for some level of CAS in Afghanistan, being able to loiter for long periods and dash quickly when no other asset was available, so they're looking to extend that role, daft as it may be.