A pair of 7 cylinder revolvers flying across my house.

1261 Views 20 Replies 18 Participants Last post by Kent Dorfman, 11 d ago

sechott

Discussion Starter · 15 d ago

That’s how close I live to an ANG airbase. They were doing touch and go training, the base is home to about a dozen C17s. I hope GAU-8 Avenger is considered a revolver by the mods

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drail

· #2 · 15 d ago

OH YES! That's about as "rotary" as you can get. Best close air support plane ever built. They can kill tanks very well also. They should have made 5 times as many as what they did. I spent some time down at Davis-Monthan AZ and they're sky is just lousy with warthogs. They have a graveyard filled with them for parts and they're USING them.

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DR505

· #3 · 15 d ago (Edited)

Last one rolled out of the factory in 1984. We used to do ACM against them with our F-14's. They would get in a "wheel of death" formation with four of them covering each other's six. We would go vertical and then shoot them from above. Good for ground attack; lousy as fighters.

I have been told the F-35 is a better tank killer, and much more of a survivable plane. It doesn't have to get close to a tank and kills it from a greater stand-off distance with missiles. The DoD gave the Warthogs to the NG because they are really obsolete on today's battlefield.

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dsk

· #4 · 15 d ago

sechott said:
I hope GAU-8 Avenger is considered a revolver by the mods

Not unless I'm allowed to own one. But since the A-10 is so badass we'll let it stand.

Funny how the Pentagon hates the A-10 so much and is trying to get rid of it, while the actual pilots and ground troops in harm's way said it was the greatest thing ever developed for the role. Maybe these brass hats need to spend more time on the front lines and see how well their pet F-35s perform when they're about to be overrun.

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mkk41

· #5 · 15 d ago

I used to see and hear Birds of Freedom as a now shuttered NAS & NG joint reserve air base is only 7 miles away, and across the street from my workplace. I did 5yrs in a reserve squadron there myself in the last half of the 80s.

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Old Fart

· #6 · 15 d ago

sechott said:
I hope GAU-8 Avenger is considered a revolver by the mods

Oh, it revolves, all right. Doesn't even sound like a gun, more like a buzz saw.

What would you call a S&W frame sized for the darn cartridge, though? The cylinder would be as big around as a dinner plate. Sure am glad I don't reload for them.

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jtq

· #7 · 15 d ago

Maybe you'd like a bigger revolver? Reloads are a little slow, though.

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drail

· #8 · 15 d ago

There is a great video on Utube where a Forward Air Controller was being interviewed. He said the Hajis were positively terrified of the A 10s. The best part was when the Hajis started listening to comms and learned to their absolute horror that one of the A 10 pilots was a woman! They were outraged that we would train a woman to fly an A 10. Then she would come up on the comm and address the Hajis like they were dogs and make fun of them.

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FDM1

· #9 · 15 d ago

The A-10 Warthog Will Fly Into the 2040s

www.popularmechanics.com

The A-10 Warthog Will Fly Into the 2040s

But it won't be a tank killer.

www.popularmechanics.com

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drail

· #10 · 15 d ago

jtq said:
Maybe you'd like a bigger revolver? Reloads are a little slow, though.

I want a poster of Slim Pickens wearing a Stetson riding THAT sucker out of the bomb bay of a B 52. Murica!

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ratwhacker

· #11 · 15 d ago

I remember the first time I saw a Warthog. I was trundling down a dirt road in a jeep on Ft. Bragg, when a shadow passed over us, and one of those things flew over our heads. Never heard a thing until it was long gone. I was sure glad it was "ours" and not someone else's. That was either in the late '70s or early '80s.
They say they're getting long in the tooth, with lots of stress cracks in the wing roots, etc. The Air Farce REALLY needs another somethingorother to replace the old girls, with something more surivivable in a modern war (Afghanistan doesn't count, they don't have aircraft). I don't know if the F-35 is the answer, it needs to be cheaper and easier to maintain than an F-35, though.
If you look at how many Russian aircraft have bit the dust in Ukraine, you have to wonder how long an A-10 could survive in that climate, with all kinds of SAMS, drones, rocket launchers, etc. The numbers of losses the Russians are sustaining is staggering (if you can believe the reports out of Ukraine, anyway, I'm not sure about them at all).

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Frank Vaccaro

· #12 · 15 d ago

dsk said:
Not unless I'm allowed to own one. But since the A-10 is so badass we'll let it stand.

Funny how the Pentagon hates the A-10 so much and is trying to get rid of it, while the actual pilots and ground troops in harm's way said it was the greatest thing ever developed for the role. Maybe these brass hats need to spend more time on the front lines and see how well their pet F-35s perform when they're about to be overrun.

If that gatling gun in the nose isn't a gun, I'm not sure I know what is a gun?😂😂😂😂😂

havanajim

· #13 · 15 d ago

Frank Vaccaro said:
If that gatling gun in the nose isn't a gun, I'm not sure I know what is a gun?😂😂😂😂😂

Definitely a gun, yes. The question is, however: Is it an assault weapon? No pistol grip, no bayonet lug, no 'thingy that goes up'. Very confusing, indeed. Perhaps a Senate sub-committee can be convened to conduct an in-depth study? I figure 4 years and perhaps $450M later, we'll have a preliminary report with recommendations for further study!

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L. Boscoe

· #14 · 15 d ago

My grandson says if the AF lets the A-10 go, the army will be all over it. (he's in the 82nd)

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drail

· #15 · 15 d ago

I have always thought that the Army should have ALL of the aircraft they want. Every military branch that wants or needs aircraft should have them - not just the Air Farce. When it comes to ground support elements they should have ANYTHING they want. They KNOW what is really needed and what works better than a bunch of worthless politicians.

Srgunner

· #16 · 14 d ago

I was in Camp Atterbury years ago repairing an excavator on a bridge job. I kept hearing an odd deep ripping sound. I finally saw an A-10 passing overhead. When I got finished I drove up a gravel road to a hilltop. Below was all types of junk military equipment they were making runs on. I'll never forget that. I wasn't there long until I was approached and told in no uncertain terms to vacate the impact area. I complied. But it was impressive.

slimwilson

· #17 · 13 d ago

Often times old airframes can have updated avionics and have a new life just look at B 52s and Huey’s and Chinooks!

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cadillacmike

· #18 · 13 d ago

dsk said:
Not unless I'm allowed to own one. But since the A-10 is so badass we'll let it stand.

Funny how the Pentagon hates the A-10 so much and is trying to get rid of it, while the actual pilots and ground troops in harm's way said it was the greatest thing ever developed for the role. Maybe these brass hats need to spend more time on the front lines and see how well their pet F-35s perform when they're about to be overrun.

It's like the 80s-90s equivalent of A-1 Skyraider.

if that plane had seen WW2 service the japanese would have coined the term "A-san" to go along with "B-san".

And as usual the NG gets the cast-offs.

ballardw

· #19 · 12 d ago

My A10 story:
I was stationed at Ft Huachuca, AZ for a school while in the Army. We were given a demonstration of the A10 maneuverability. Out on a patrol along one of the ridges in the mountains and an A10 flew up the draw, not large enough to call a canyon or similar feature, below us, and turned around before going over the ridge and came down the same draw. This was 1981 and pretty sure the bird was from Davis Montham AFB as that was only 70 miles away.

I know some of the Army Intel folks wanted to replace their old Mohawk aerial surveillance plane with a modified A10 to have some protection and better payloads.

KimberProCDP

· #20 · 12 d ago

sechott said:
That’s how close I live to an ANG airbase. They were doing touch and go training, the base is home to about a dozen C17s. I hope GAU-8 Avenger is considered a revolver by the mods View attachment 682048 View attachment 682049

😆😆😆

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