[phreak]

IIRC, the A-10 has made it back with only a wing and a half...

I've heard one coming back with one of the engines and side of tail section blown off

[TrashMan]

Yup..tha A-10 is a tough one

[IceFire]

Designed that way too...I love how the cockpit area is often called an "armored bathtub".  A very visual sort of description.  The A-10 is probably the best CAS aircraft ever built.  It takes all of the lessons of WWII and later CAS aircraft and combines it into a heck of an aircraft.  They were going to phase them out but apparently they have been so useful recently that they are upgrading and extending their lifespan into the 2030 range I think.  They still want to replace them with F-35s or F-16s or some sort of nonsense like that but I think they will just keep them going until they can't.

Ultimately they will probably be replaced by an armored UAV or some sort.

[Kie99]

This has great potential as a new kind of weapon.

[Nuke]

Designed that way too...I love how the cockpit area is often called an "armored bathtub".  A very visual sort of description.  The A-10 is probably the best CAS aircraft ever built.  It takes all of the lessons of WWII and later CAS aircraft and combines it into a heck of an aircraft.  They were going to phase them out but apparently they have been so useful recently that they are upgrading and extending their lifespan into the 2030 range I think.  They still want to replace them with F-35s or F-16s or some sort of nonsense like that but I think they will just keep them going until they can't.

Ultimately they will probably be replaced by an armored UAV or some sort.

from what ive heard theyre being upgraded with a new avionics and a new glass cockpit. replacing the a-10 with something like f-35 is stupid. the a-10 is good at flying low and slow. its got the armor to endure lots of ground fire. it can also loiter over a combat area for a lont period of time to be available as the ground forces require. it all comes down to wing shape, a steep wing just isnt good at low and slow. you need a nice big straight wing for that. and only at 8 or 9 million each, thay are a bargian for the amount of damage they can do.

[jr2]

... They were our most feared weapon in Gulf War I, perhaps II as well... along with the AC-130 Spectre.  Both loiter for a long time, dealing out incredible amounts of damage.

[IceFire]

And from the Transformers movie we can clearly see that both of those types work fairly well against transforming alien robots

[Sandwich]

And from the Transformers movie we can clearly see that both of those types work fairly well against transforming alien robots

I was just gonna say...

Man, when that AC-130 opened up I got chills.

[TrashMan]

the movie's got nuttin on the real thing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfThQygJ_2o  - A-10 brining the hurt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpyFMEKQyrk  - Minigun POWR!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbP89YAVblg  - C-130's show of force

[Nuke]

now do you understand my unhealthy fascination with gatliung guns

[Mefustae]

Gatling guns are great and all, but gatling-gatling-gatling guns are better.

[jr2]

Watching the "related" videos... they're cool!

[Mika]

I'm not so sure about the engineering work here, the then McDonnel Douglas team had underestimated the lift caused by the body of the aircraft which initially led them to the argument it is impossible to fly without the other wing. There are other related incidents (i.e. Did not think about that when designing the thing!) like the ammo belt of a fighter originating from a certain country that was sucked inside the engine. The interesting part was that the engine inlet was before the ammo belt ejection hole and the belt was sucked forwards while aircraft was also moving forwards. You never know the aerodynamics and vortexes around the fighter, if you don't check it in a wind tunnel I suppose.

The F-15 pilot did something interesting which was litting the afterburner in that situation, this is completely opposite of what the procedures would dictate. Well, some people simply have the intuition and do instinctively right and also tend to be in right places in the right moments. I think that the fully story concluded that the pilot was first demoted for disobeying the command to eject (he had a flight instructor sitting in the Weapons Systems Officer seat) and then promoted to major for saving the aircraft.

A-10 is a very tough and well designed airplane, but I would still think twice about its survival abilities in modern threat environment. In Vietnam US Air Force learned that the range and accuracy of AAA fire was a lethal threat to slow aircraft, while faster bomb trucks usually came back unscatched. Nowadays, also Surface to Air Missiles are a grave threat.

[TrashMan]

Teh A-10 is very manuverable and can fly very low. 

And nuke...yer not the only gattling fanatic over here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckSYa0yJQqg   <--- watch dis one! Gattling tribute

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qf9bCebm4aE   <---- Scientific analysys of why a gattling gun is so good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCjDjQF6rjg

[jr2]

In Gulf War I, the A-10 was known to have survived direct missile hits... one of the engines stalled.  The pilot simply spooled it back up and left the area.    Go read "Warthog"; excellent book.

EDIT:  Nuke & TrashMan, looky here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QiCWrL6VjsY&NR

[Fragrag]

The Indonesian in me is cringing at how much ammo (read: money) is being wasted, while the soldier in me is crying '**** YEAH'

[IceFire]

A-10 is a very tough and well designed airplane, but I would still think twice about its survival abilities in modern threat environment. In Vietnam US Air Force learned that the range and accuracy of AAA fire was a lethal threat to slow aircraft, while faster bomb trucks usually came back unscatched. Nowadays, also Surface to Air Missiles are a grave threat.

I think it was designed for that sort of environment. They still have a limited standoff ability with the Mavericks so they don't have to fly right overhead but I guess the best use of the A-10 is in conjunction with a F-18G and F-16CJ's all running SEAD.  Not that you want to get hit but the A-10 was designed to fly into the thick of things.  I don't think the modern environment has changed all that much since the A-10 was designed.  Certainly in the counter insurgency world having a dedicated CAS aircraft is paying off as well.

[Nuke]

The Indonesian in me is cringing at how much ammo (read: money) is being wasted, while the soldier in me is crying '**** YEAH'

when you consider that the ammo in these guns is far cheaper than air to ground missiles, it seems lest wasteful. so in an air to ground or air to air role, its well worth having one.

the low caliber gatling guns used in choppers and on humvees has its role set as a fear inducer. the second you see that gatling gun roar to life and open up, you jump into your foxehole and pull your helmet down over your eyes. now i admit that when on the ground, the oppritunity for gross overusage of ammo is greater. rather than a pilot who has a half a second window to pull his trigger, you have some gung ho soldier wio is abit trigger happy and has orders to lay down suppression fire, that ammo is gonna go quick.

as a suppression weapon is where that fear comes in to play, your job is not to hit the enemy, but to get him down on the ground while you either advance or retreat. if you should happen to hit the enemy, which is much more likely with a gatling, so much the better. you wont see gatlings issued to individual soldiers as standard issue any time soon.

[TrashMan]

You can't really miss with that thing...the density of fire is simply redicolous. (see second vid I posted for details)

You seen that vid where a guy shoots at a car from a minigun mounted on a black van? The car looked like swiss chesse*100... it's amazing how it's chasis didn't simply collapse under it's own weight with all those holes...

[Nuke]

oh yea and you can kill stuff with it too

miniguns make excelent turret guns, no matter they be implacements or on a vehicle. with that kind of tracer density, its impossible to miss, the trick is learning to let go of the trigger, and not to get carried away.