Puff the Magic Dragon

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 10/19/2001 10:16:12 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
slang at BLUEYONDER.CO.UK writes:

> from Gregory R Clark _Words of the Vietnam War_ (1990)
>
>  AC-47 (Spooky, Gooney Bird, Dragon-ship, Puff-the-Magic Dragon)  C-47
>  aircraft modified to perform as a gunship

"Gooney Bird" is a term applied to any Douglas DC-3, including the military
C-47 cargo plane and the AC-47 gunship.  On the other hand "Puff the Magic
Dragon" and "dragon ship" and "Spooky" are terms that are applied to gunships
but not to unarmed C-47's or unarmed C-130's.

Were the hyphens in the original text?  They appear where they shouldn't.

I have never found out what Peter Paul and Mary thought of their song title
becoming the nickname of a warplane.  (There is a theory, never confirmed to
the best of my knowledge, that "Puff" was a song about marijuana.  Talk about
high-flying metaphors!)

Robert J. Serling _When the Airlines Went to War_ (New York: Kensington
Books, 1997, ISBN 1-57566-246-9) page 57

<quote>
...to every American pilot who ever flew one, however, the C-47 was known as
the "Gooney Bird."  The derivation of that nickname is generally attributed
to the real-life Gooney Bird, a large species of seagull that inhabits small
South Pacific atolls like Wake Island.  But there are at least two other
theories as to the cognomen's origin.
    An Air Corps colonel once wrote Douglas that "Gooney Bird" was never
derived from a bird, but instead comes from the word "goon"  <snip>
    yet another theory holds that "Gooney" actually predated the war and was
the nickname pilots of the Tenth Transport Group, for unknown reasons,
bestowed on the C-39 [Army Air Corps designation for the DC-3's predecessor,
the Doughlas DC-2].  Douglas itself has never taken sides on any explanation
because its own historical files can't confirm the exact origion.
<end quote>

    In its early days what we now consider to be the "humble" DC-3 acquired
the nickname of "The Flying Whore".  Why?  Because its wings were, for that
day, daringly thin, and hence the plane "had no visible means of support".
[By the way, Addison "The Recruiting Officer" written in I think 1706
contains a joke about a miner who "had no visible means of support" because
he worked underground.)  The "Flying Whore" nickname disappeared as soon as
the DC-3 demonstrated its ability to fly through vicious storms.

                 - James A. Landau
                   Systems Engineer
                   FAA Technical Center (ACT-350/BCI)
                   Atlantic City Airport NJ 08405 USA