A-10C Firing the Avenger, 30mm
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The most beautiful ugly aircraft ever made.
A few dozen of those would work wonders against a 9 mile long column of Russian tanks, armor, and support vehicles.
The killer Hawg'...it's beyond my comprehension that the AF has tried to shelf this platform on several occasions but it has survived for (at least) 2022.
In the development stage of the A-10, those gun gases were so voluminous that they extinguished the engines and the test pilot had to bail out on at least one test flight.
Tom, I did some surfing and found that the drum magazine can hold 1350 rounds but they only load it to 1175 to cut down on jamming. I also read that the average destructive round cost is $130.00 per.
If so that's an expensive mag dump.
If so that's an expensive mag dump.
OP
They call the loader The Snake. It retrieves the spent cases while loading new live rounds into the drum. Quite an interesting operation to watch. I'm not sure how many times the could reload the spent "brass", or even if they do. The main reason the Avenger does not dump the empties is the hazard to the troops on the ground.
OP
It has recently been funded for a while more. Nothing says CAS like the A-10.
They call the loader The Snake. It retrieves the spent cases while loading new live rounds into the drum. Quite an interesting operation to watch. I'm not sure how many times the could reload the spent "brass", or even if they do. The main reason the Avenger does not dump the empties is the hazard to the troops on the ground.
Or, to keep the brass collectors from getting underfoot on the battlefield.
mckenney99
Member
HA, HA. Everywhere you go, there is that one guy that is like a hoover vacuum sucking up every piece of brass almost as fast as it hits the ground. On more than one occasion I've had to tell him to leave my stuff alone. I can just picture the dofus chasing an A10 around trying to catch the brass with his helmet.
OP
Yep, that's what they were designed to do. Stop the Soviets from coming in from the Fulda Gap.
DWalt
Member
Never saw an A-10 firing but I did see a static test firing of the gun at Eglin AFB some years ago. Very impressive. In this day of Manpads, the A-10 may have lost some of its effectiveness.
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I am lucky as the A-10s are based out of Selfridge Air Base about 35 miles south of me. Traveling that way, I periodically get to see them in flight.
Beautiful ugly.
Beautiful ugly.
LVSteve
Member
They call the loader The Snake. It retrieves the spent cases while loading new live rounds into the drum. Quite an interesting operation to watch. I'm not sure how many times the could reload the spent "brass", or even if they do. The main reason the Avenger does not dump the empties is the hazard to the troops on the ground.
IIRC the cases are alloy, so reloading may be out. The reason they keep the empties is to mitigate the Center of Gravity change when expending a lot of ammo.
40 years ago I used to fish Lake Kissimmee with my 1st wife's father. More than once the A10's would pass over the boat very low on their way to the Avon Park range. Musta been 15-20 miles south but you could hear them unload. I guess they still do but I haven't been down that way since the '80's. Joe
And did well in Iraq on the highway of death in Desert Storm.
That plane is nothing more than a 30MM cannon with 2-9000 LB thrust turbo fans attached to it. It can carry missiles and has short takeoff and landing capabilities.
It has the ability to take a lot of damage and keep flying. I have always liked that airplane. Certainly, no F-18 with over 40,000 LBS of thrust but still a great weapon.
It has the ability to take a lot of damage and keep flying. I have always liked that airplane. Certainly, no F-18 with over 40,000 LBS of thrust but still a great weapon.
The A-10 is a wonderful, purpose designed CAS aircraft. Ugly as sin, slow, but does it's job so very well. Seems to me the USAF has always leaned towards sleek, sexy, and fast aircraft, the A-10 is none of the aforementioned and the USAF has tried and tried to rid itself of the ugly duckling. Every time it looks like the A-10 will be retired, another reason for its very existence emerges somewhere in the world. Long live the A-10!
That it did. Was there, saw the results.
Having worked with the A-10 in Alaska--a looong time ago--I can say I never heard of the gun smoke "extinguishing the engines, although it does cause a degrade in power over time. For that reason the engines are water-washed every 100 hours of flight, at least during my time with them. Water washing is running soap solution through the engine while the turbine are spun up followed by a clear-water rinse and engine run to dry everything out. They did a couple of cannon mods to a few A-10 there. One changed the two-speed rate of fire to a single rate of fire. They also changed the cannon muzzle to a different design to blow the gun smoke down below the plane. It worked in that aspect, but the powder particles cause significant erosion on bomb racks etc. (Think sand blasting) and a vibration caused some items to crack. I've never seen another A-10 with the muzzle mod since.
Yes, the center of gravity is affected by the ammo weight, thus the "empties" are retained in the ammo drum. Even on the ground, if the drum is emptied for maintenance, a jack is placed under the tail to prevent the aircraft from tipping on its tail. Ammo for practice is "TP" (Blue bullets). Combat ammo was either API (Armor piercing incendiary) or HEI (High explosive incendiary). Yes, the casings are an alum alloy.
Operating at sub-zero temps with the aircraft parked outside (No heated hangars at the time) was a bear and hard on the planes, but we managed to get them airborne in temps down to -45 to -50.
Yes, the center of gravity is affected by the ammo weight, thus the "empties" are retained in the ammo drum. Even on the ground, if the drum is emptied for maintenance, a jack is placed under the tail to prevent the aircraft from tipping on its tail. Ammo for practice is "TP" (Blue bullets). Combat ammo was either API (Armor piercing incendiary) or HEI (High explosive incendiary). Yes, the casings are an alum alloy.
Operating at sub-zero temps with the aircraft parked outside (No heated hangars at the time) was a bear and hard on the planes, but we managed to get them airborne in temps down to -45 to -50.
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If that's the case it would make sense to transfer them to Army Aviation.
It's closer to an Apache helicopter than a F-16
@SMSgt: THANK YOU
OP
That transfer was being discussed in the 80s when I was stationed at Ft. Rucker. I had my hand raised as high as I could get it. Then Desert Storm came along and the Air Force rethought the idea.
And that's why you live in "The Sunshine State." Joe
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Pretty sure that would win any bear gun argument.
My understanding is that the army is prohibited from having jet-powered warplanes by law. Part of the army-air force separation agreement. Propeller-driven aircraft would be okay, but not an A-10.
Partly true. It wasn't how cold it got in the interior of AK, it was how long it stayed cold. Sub-zero in mid October and remained so until maybe early March. Most of my service was in the more northern areas (WA, IN, AK, WA) and the shoveling snow got really old.
Then the Marines could pick it up.
