The A-10 in this thread had been hit too. Many times. But it didn't take it out. War games, like paint ball, determines hits but doesn't determine fatality. Either way, I'd say congratulations, you did some damn fine shootin'.:D If they did there job, you don't hear them at all.LOL

Late one night just after the 1991 Gulf War. On Horsham Rd outside Willow Grove NAS. An A-10 was doing touch and goes - except he never left the perimeter of base's chain link fence. An A-10 in full right turn - almost 90 degrees - turning around for another pass and not even going over Horsham Road. They look a lot bigger when they are that close. Even the 747 would only be another support function for the A-10.

In a last Willow Grove airshow, one ground crewman was an Army soldier in the Gulf War. He chose reserve duty as on A-10 ground support because, he said, he was alive only because of the Hawg.

I've seen quite a few Hogs. I live near Farmingdale, so I used to see the wings go by on a truck all the time

RE them being large - Let's put in perspective - They are almost EXACTLY the same size as a B-25 from WWII, and have a similar config - twin tails, twin engine, tricycle gear. They are impressive as heck. I keep a practive round (No powder, blue pill) on my desk at home:D

The most impressive flight of a pair of A-10s I ever saw was back in the 80s. I was camping in South Arm Maine (look it up - middle of NOWHERE), just after Labor day. It seems that that area becomes an Air Force free fly area after labor day. We were on a bluff about , oh 50 feet above the lake, when a pair of A-10s comes around the hill, and drops down to the lake - when the flight lead went by he was low enough that we could clearly see him - he WAVED at us!

Primary Function: A-10 -- close air support, OA-10 - airborne forward air control
Contractor: Fairchild Republic Co.
Power Plant: Two General Electric TF34-GE-100 turbofans
Thrust: 9,065 pounds each engine
Length: 53 feet, 4 inches (16.16 meters)
Height: 14 feet, 8 inches (4.42 meters)
Wingspan: 57 feet, 6 inches (17.42 meters)
Speed: 420 miles per hour (Mach 0.56)
Ceiling: 45,000 feet (13,636 meters)
Maximum Takeoff Weight: 51,000 pounds (22,950 kilograms)
Range: 800 miles (695 nautical miles)
Armament: One 30 mm GAU-8/A seven-barrel Gatling gun; up to 16,000 pounds (7,200 kilograms) of mixed ordnance on eight under-wing and three under-fuselage pylon stations, including 500 pounds (225 kilograms) of Mk-82 and 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms) of Mk-84 series low/high drag bombs, incendiary cluster bombs, combined effects munitions, mine dispensing munitions, AGM-65 Maverick missiles and laser-guided/electro-optically guided bombs; infrared countermeasure flares; electronic countermeasure chaff; jammer pods; 2.75-inch (6.99 centimeters) rockets; illumination flares and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles.
Crew: One
Date Deployed: March 1976
Unit Cost: $9.8 million (fiscal 98 constant dollars)

Have any of you seen the A-10 "music video?" I saw it at Squadron Officer's School. It was a homemade affair with a funny little song that had a catchy refrain:

I'm a Yank in a bank, killing commies in their tanks (snort snort)

I've always wanted to see it posted to the web, but my wish hasn't come true yet that I know of...

teri :)

That's right. It also has air to air combat abilities. However I just cannot imagine an A-10 taking out an airborne MIG or Mirage.

I don't think MiGs or Mirages fly that low. Plus, they might not even be able to slow down enough to shoot down a Warthog...

Here's a cool article from Air Force Magazine about how A-10s did during Desert Storm:

http://www.afa.org/magazine/perspect...893warhog.html

I just found this picture of the gatling gun. Daaaaamn!

Not just for shooting airplanes . . .
 

Those AIM 9's work great on most helo's too. Big heat signature and slow moving (compared to a MIG), Sidewinder will just eat it up.

And as for durability, I recall reading that the backup surface controls are cable.

here's a pretty good warthog history.

Found this pic of an injured Warthog being loaded up for the trip home. It WILL fly again.

Must be hard to land them then. :-)
I think an all-aspect Sidewinder (or French/Russki equivalant) would probably make short work of an A-10 engine. One of the bigger radar guided missles might work from further out.

That said, we know that A-10's pack flares and chaff...and they have an *extremely* tight turning radius. Might be able to spoof such missles when skillfully flown; a kill woud be far from a "sure thing".

I gather the A-10 is quite good at turning inside most missles

But, even IF the vaerage AA missle hits an A-10, it has a GOOD chance of coming home. The reason the engines are Up and OUT like they are is that if one engine is hit by a missle, the A-10 can limp home on the other

The modern all aspect heat seakers should have no problem locking on. However, the Hog was designed to be VERY hard to lock onto with the older seekers. You'll notice that the engines are BETWEEN the Vertical Stabs, and ABOVE the Horizontal stab. That is to give the exhaust time to mix with ambient air before becoming visible to ground based seeker. In addition, hte hog was one of the first attack aircraft to use high bypass turbofans, which have a MUCH lower exhaust temp, as something like 70% of the air does NOT go through the combustion chamber. Also, if you look closely, you will see that the center core exhaust (aka, the hot part), is angled up, again, to mix the air

Her's the pilot, Capt. Campbell. She should be proud. She looks it.

Damn Slang , that must suck spending the Tgiveing over seas !!