AC-130 Roman Nose

spectre311 · by **spectre311** » 22 Sep 2023, 02:11

Hey, everyone :-D

I've had a question that's been bugging me for a bit as I began diving deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole of early C-130s more specifically the AC-130 and all of its variants. So I finally created an account on here to ask the experts.

My question is: Was airframe 54-1626 the only AC-130 that retained its original Roman Nose or did 53-3129 have it as well when she was initially converted to an AC-130 before receiving the signature radome that the Herc has donned for many decades?

daswp · by **daswp** » 22 Sep 2023, 03:16

Let me do some digging.

h-bomb · by **h-bomb** » 22 Sep 2023, 22:50

We have a few here in an older thread:
viewtopic.php?f=74&t=52307

spectre311 · by **spectre311** » 22 Sep 2023, 23:04

h-bomb wrote:We have a few here in an older thread: https://www.c-130.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=74&t=52307

Thanks a lot, I was under the assumption that 53-3129 kept the Roman Nose during Vietnam because of this photo but I'm guessing this might be 1626 instead which makes the bird pretty unique.

: This Spectre may be 54-1626 but Spectre Association has the photo under 53-3129

daswp · by **daswp** » 23 Sep 2023, 21:11

53-3129 had a Roman Nose, she received the standard nose prior to deploying to Ubon.

edpop · by **edpop** » 27 Sep 2023, 05:39

54-1626 was the prototype AC-130A.
From C-130.net

edpop · by **edpop** » 27 Sep 2023, 05:52

From Squadron Signal Gunship book