Gunships - The Early Years

There was some earlier discussion about the history of the USAF gunships. Here's some history to help set the record straight.

Ed Robbeloth

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GUNSHIPS - THE EARLY DAYS

A lot of us are under the misconception that the U.S. Air Force invented the gunship. As much as I wish it were so, that ain't the way it happened.

The earliest reference I've found to gunships dates to 1916 and the Germans during World War I. A German officer, Lt. Ernst Neuber, came up with the idea of using a 130mm cannon mounted vertically in an R-plane (VGO.II) to attack ships and other surface targets because bombing was too inaccurate.

On 25 May 1916, he began static tests to determine if the airframe could tolerate the stresses of firing such a large cannon. On 6 October of that year, the gun was installed in the bomber, mounted near the airplane's center of gravity. Ground testing revealed that everything worked perfectly just at Lt. Neuber had predicted.

Actually hitting something while in flight proved a bit more of a problem. Tests on 19 October at an altitude of about 2,400 feet resulted in misses on the order of 150 feet. Hitting a moving ground target from a moving plane was quite as easy as it appeared.

The Germans were impressed with the idea however, and were working on a

105mm cannon that could fire 20 rounds per minute and also a new aircraft to carry it. Unfortunately (or fortunately - depending on which side you were on), the war ended before it could be placed into production.

By the early 1930's the French -- our bosom buddies -- were convinced they had "invented" the gunship. It was in the form of the Bordelaise A.B. 22 aircraft. The twist here was that it was a side-mounted cannon. Specifically the famed 75mm cannon (Schneider type P.D. 12 bis). This setup was more like what we see on the modern AC-130U gunship with the gunner being able to make small adjustments to bring the cannon to bear on the target. The French airplane was "draggy" with lots of things hanging off it to slow it down and its engines were barely adequate. It would have made a juicy target for the Luftwaffe at the beginning of World War II.

It would be another 30 years or so before the gunship idea was invented, yet again.

Sources: "An Example of WWI R&D: Aircraft Gunships," Command Magazine, Issue

33, Mar-Apr 1995, pp. 26-27. Boyne, Walt, "Gallic Gunship The Flying French Seventy-Five," Wings magazine Volume 12, No. 3 June 1983, pp. 40-45.
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robbelothe
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There's a bit more information on that Neuber gunship to be found in "The German Giants" by Haddow and Grosz.

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Old Timer

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