Cool vid with a kick butt tune!

[Ponyman66]

While searching Youtube I came across this vid and thought I'd share it. It's my personal all time favorite jet airplane. Even though the Air Force tried to retire it, they keep bringing it. It's one of those rare aircraft that was designed so well nothing has been found capable enough to replace it! If you haven't figured out what it is yet, it's officially called the A-10 Thunderbolt II. Affectionately known as the WARTHOG! It's also the single most lethal piece of equipment on the battlefield...bar none!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bMfrixJyWc

 

[FordDude]

I could not agree more. When I was in the USAF we had A-7D, but they were on the way out. They brought in 3 A-10's for training. My part of the A-10 was the Pave Penny laser tracking system. It would display a symbol on the HUD showing the pilot a laser target. I got to hear a live fire test of the 20mm Gatling gun, I can only imagine what the 30mm on the WarThog sounds like.

fd

 

[AzPete]

Having worked on the weapons systems (aircraft loading, release systems, training) of numerous USAF aircraft for my 20+ years (69-91), each one had it's special purpose as technology advanced.

Part of the replacement is cost......with no serious war threatening the US, there is not pressure for new technology to be put to use. No other country has a better fighter either.....once at the top, it takes something to cause things to be improved.

The A-10 was designed from the late '60s thru 1970 and first purchased in 1976 with the newest being '84 I believe.

We all know there are many improvements over the years but with nothing new in the air anywhere, it still holds up good.

When comparing military aircraft, one must also remember their purpose....A is attack, F is fighter, C is cargo and on and on. Each diferent letter in front of the number designation means a different purpose in life. Those purposes may overlap also.

 

[Anonymous]

Every once in awhile, I'll get a tree level flyby of a few A-10's. It's a sweet sound and vision :thu

 

[Anonymous]

I NEED THAT!

 

[FordDude]

I was going to say something about not wanting to be an enemy tank, but during my search I found this little quote...

Tuesday, February 24th, 2004
Another USMC Devil Dog checks in...

I just wanted to state that the Hog is an awesome weapon. I was with 3rd Bn 2nd Marines of Task Force Tarawa in An Nasiriyah Iraq and saw firsthand the devastation the warthog created. We had been taking fre from a building bout 3/4 of a mile from my pos. We shot it up with the 25mm Bushmaster cannons mounted on top of the LAV-25s, TOW anti-tank missiles from our HMMWVs, countless rounds of .50 cal and 40mm grenades and were still recieving fire. We finally called in AH-1W Cobras to make passes, after about the third or forth pass an A-10 came on station, both Cobras broke of from a gun run and the Hog rolled in. Talk about devestation, that GAU-8 Aveneger sounded like hell on earth, sure came in handy that time.

http://www.a-10.org/

fd

 

[David67]

I remember when I was young my dad would take to El Toro marine base. He had access to the base because of work and he would let me and my brother sit in the truck while he went to work. I used watch the A-10 take off and land there. Saw harriers, F-18's and we saw the stealth bomber one time driving by. We were going to his company picnic, he was helping set up the event and we decided to drive by the base. He would drive the by the air field and we saw the bomber land and drive into an airplane hanger. That was amazing, writing this brings backs lots of cool memories of the stuff we would do.

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ponyman66]

Pete I apologize if you felt I was comparing aircraft. As you correctly stated, each has it's special purpose. I wasn't attempting to compare it to anything else. Out of ALL jet aircraft, past and present, I have been in love with the A-10 since the late 70's when I was a teen. My brother and I were driving up the highway through a pine forest on a two lane road when above us at tree top level a flight of three flew over the highway. I thought it was totally cool looking! We never heard them approaching and only heard the engines after they had passed over. The were from one of the squadrons stationed in Myrtle Beach. Many years later while stationed in Savannah, Ga (I spent 15 years in Coast Guard aviation), a bird from the same squadron had an engine failure while shooting touch and go's at the field I was at. Our CO gave them full support, towing the disabled plane and even moving one of our helicopters out of the hangar to give them room to bring the Hog inside. It sat on the hangar deck directly outside our shop door while having the engine replaced and the airframe patched (it had sucked in a bird and suffered a stage one turbine failure. When the turbine failed it exploded, puncturing the nacelle and fuselage with debris!). The mechs that came down gave me a guided tour of the plane, opening every panel for me and letting me sit in the cockpit. I was thrilled!!! I was also amazed at how "old" the cockpit technology was! Finally, one of the coolest sights I've ever seen was while riding a bus from Salt Lake City down to the Army's Dugway facility. There was a live range within visual distance from the highway. One of the guys on the bus said, "hey look, there's an A-10". When I looked over they had just begun a gun run and you could clearly see the smoke from the GAU-8 as he opened up. As we rode along I got to watch two more strafing runs before we couldn't see him anymore.

When it comes to cost/need, I'd have to disagree. There haven't been any true aerial conflicts in quit awhile. Still they've replaced aircraft, or tried to. Current examples of that are the C-5 and then the C-7, as well as the B-1, B-2, the F-16 and F-22. The A-10's attempted replacement is the F-35, though it hasn't happened yet. They still seek "better" models in order to keep up with advances in technology, or at least try!

To elaborate on my comments about a rare plane that hasn't been able to replaced by something better, I cite examples such as the C-130 and B-52 (in addition to the A-10). While each has a unique role, they have all lived long past their intended service lives due to nothing being found that was equal to or better in order to replace them. The USAF had mothballed a number of A-10's to Davis-Monthan prior to the 1st Gulf war, in addition to closing down/consolidating a number of A-10 squadrons. IIRC correctly, they anticipated using the F-16 in both a fighter role and ground attack plane to replace the A-10. It didn't work! Out of mothballs came many of those A-10's and back into service they went. When I stated they were/are the most lethal weapon on the battlefield, I was referring to the ground, not aerial battlefield. No matter how many toes I step on by saying it, the A-10 rules (sorry red legs and tankers!), though A-10's even scored two aerial victories by shooting down several Soviet made helos! Not every kill was made by the fighter jocks!

Sorry to ramble, but I love them Hogs almost as much as I love my Mustangs!

p.s. The A-10 squadron that we helped out with their broken bird was so impressed with the hospitality they received, they took patches off of them uniforms and gave them to folks. After returning from their deployment during the 1st Gulf was, they also sent a framed and matted picture of several A-10's flying in formation. That image was in the center and around the perimeter were little cameo shots of every A-10 in the squadron showing their nose art.It was proudly displayed at the main entrance hallway to our admin building, and I'd love to have that thing today. What I did end up with was a Christmas card. As a tradition in USCG aviation, each shop would have Christmas cards made up and then sent to our "sister" shops at every other CG air station. After their repairs were done they rolled the A-10 out of the hangar for it's initial ground runs. While sitting on the ramp in front of our hangar, all of our shop personnel stood in front of the plane and had our photo taken. The image showed us in a line with the A-10 behind us and the hangar in the background with our air station name and the CG racing stripe at the top of the building above the hangar doors. We had the image made into phot Christmas cards and that's what we sent out that year. It looked totally cool! :thu

 

[beach pony]

A-10's were synonymous with the Myrtle Beach Air Force Base back in the day! Bad ass for sure!

 

[AzPete]

Oh....I know what you were referring to....no problem....just wanted others to understand a bit about the aircraft world also. Most of the new aircraft purchased with no major conflicts happening are a trade off for some other political issues....deep in the govt. plus some are planned and a deal made with possible conflicts in the future,

The US has always maintained the best systems and technology is well ahead of what is out there. I don't think any military aircraft has been retired when it was planned upon purchase. Touring the Davis-Monthan Bone Yard in Tucson shows that.

Keeping the differences between the attack and fighter type aircraft becomes blurred real fast based on the need/use in a conflict plus the new weapons that are developed/modified once an aircraft becomes active. This is even a problem from design. Going back to the F-105, as a fighter it also had a bomb bay......a second role as a bomber but nothing compared to a designated bomber. Kind of like our cars....the Mustang was planned as a mild secretaries car....lol

It is always good to see support for our military......