[Photo] The effect of Florida’s freezing rain on U.S. Air Force AC-130U gunship

January 29, 2014 Military Aviation

David Cenciotti

Florida is experiencing unusually cold temperature. High winds and freezing rain, brought by a winter storm coated aircraft in a layer of ice.

These images, taken on Jan. 29, 2014, say it all.

Since quite unusual freezing rain and cold temperature have layered Hurlburt Field, Florida, in a thin sheet of ice, icicles formed on a U.S. Air Force AC-130U Spooky gunship’s 25 mm Gatling gun.

If you believe that using the rotary guns (facing down and aft along the plane’s left side) in Northern Europe, or Siberia, might not be a good idea, take a look at how these systems work: a few bursts of rounds through those barrels would take care of the icicles (and of the bad guys on the ground).

Flight operations at the base are temporarily suspended because of the bad weather.

Image credit: U.S. Air Force

About David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

Gary Smrtic says:

January 29, 2014 at 11:32 PM

Spooky? Spooky? I thought AC130’s were Spectre’s? Wasn’t the AC-47 referred to as “Spooky”?
- Richard A Silva says:
  
  January 30, 2014 at 2:24 AM
  
  This is an AC-130U from the 4th SOS. AC-130H models are in the 16th SOS and are called Spectre. There are new J models coming online soon and it is known as the Ghostrider. The squadron will continue to be Spectre.
Bill says:

January 30, 2014 at 2:50 AM

Hi from Florida David. Hurlburt is just down the road and we did get a little ice this morning, but nothing to worry about. The AC-130 is actually known as the “Spectre”. The “Spooky” was a Viet Nam era gunship based on the C-47.