16 things you didn't know about the a-10 warthog
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the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff once described the a-10 warthog
has the ugliest most beautiful aircraft on the planet the thing is basically a flying tank
comprised of little more than a simple airplane wrapped around a giant freaking gun
it fires uranium filled bullets the size of beer bottles from a gun the size of a volkswagen
and is rarely called by its actual name it's not warthog
here are 16 things you didn't know about the a10 thunderbolt 2.
number one its primary use is close quarters ground support
need someone to take out a few armored enemy patrols a few miles up the road call in an a-10
number two the a-10 isn't actually called the warthog it's really the a-10
thunderbolt 2 named after the ground support oriented p47 thunderbolt from world war
ii the a-10 is obviously not the prettiest plane which is how it earned his legendary
nickname number three it has a bulletproof bathtub on board
well kind of there are over 1200 pounds of 0.5 inch to 1.5 inch thick titanium
surrounding the pilot is nicknamed the bathtub
because when [ __ ] hits the fan and you're getting fired at it's the safest spot to be
number four it's so tough it's actually a next-gen weather monitor because of all
that armor and because it has to fly slowly for its ground support role it's an ideal candidate
to fly into supercell thunderstorms which often have high winds and large hailstones for weather
research obviously any pilot that flies into such a storm likely has large stones as well
number five the a-10s cannon is bigger than a vw bug the a-10s one big gun that someone built
a plane around all total the gau-8 avenger cannon is over 19 feet long and with all the ammunition
weighs over 4 000 pounds that's not just an intimidation factor
that level of firepower is required if you're trying to shoot through a tank's armor
number six and that cannon has destroyed well over one thousand tanks
most of those were in desert storm but still
number seven is also so big it had to be installed off center
the recoil from the cannon could actually change the plane's trajectory
so it's offset a little to ensure the shells fire right at the center of the plane the
designers even had to move the landing gear over a little bit to make room for everything
number eight it shoots bullets the size of beer bottles the avenger can fire off 3 900 rounds per
minute of shells this huge moving at nearly 2 200 miles per hour that's sr-71 territory
number nine and they're full of uranium technically it's depleted geranium
that's a byproduct of making nuclear fuel skipping the technical jargon
it ignites after the outer shell hits a tank basically shooting flaming uranium inside
number 10 a special vehicle is built purely for loading the ammo it's called a dragon
number 11 pilots never fire the cannon for more than a couple seconds at a time
mostly this is because it will dramatically shorten the barrel life since firing all those
giant shells so quickly builds up a lot of heat also two seconds worth of this bad boy means 130
rounds of uranium stuffed beer bottles doing 2 200 miles per hour a couple of seconds is all it needs
number 12 the cannon produces so much smoke it could kill a jet engine
during testing the engines literally shut off from lack of oxygen
so a special combustion chamber was produced to help keep him fired up while the gun was blasting
number 13 the a-10 is one tough son of a [ __ ]
even without that bulletproof bathtub up front the thunderbolt's a hard plane to take down
it's super stable and the skin of the plane isn't structural like most other modern warplanes
so most damage is purely cosmetic this plane took a crap
ton of fire during desert storm and still landed safely at the base about an hour away
number 14 the rear landing gear doesn't fully retract
this is actually a matter of optimizing the structural rigidity of the wings a side effect of
keeping the wheels lower in the plane is that it makes emergency landings just a little bit faster
number 15 the tail has to be supported by jacks when the avenger is serviced
the plane is so gun centric it literally can't support itself when the cannon's missing
think about that for a second
number 16 the a-10 was piloted by a three-time super bowl champion chad hennings was an important
part of the dallas cowboys defensive line back when the cowboys were winning super bowls
before that he drove a warthog in the persian gulf before retiring with the rank of captain
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