A tribute to the coolest awesomest kicka** airplane EVAR.

My opinion... But I know it is shared with many others on TW.

The A-10

I recently had an opportunity to tour the Maryland ANG Base with my coworkers after we did a charity event in partnership with the base Officials.

They have 18 active A-10's on site 2 backups and 2 decommissioned.

We used to have A-10's stationed at Willow Grove and I've been watching them fly over Bucks county for years.

This was my first time to ever get up close and experience one and it was a big thrill.

Here are some shots:



This is an eagle that got sucked into one of the jets & took out the whole engine.
They literally gathered up all the pieces and had a taxidermist put it back together and mount him up.
Caption Reads "Million Dollar Dirty Bird"


Sitting standby:




In the last spot we have the mjp2 A-10 on it's Jackstands...


I thought that was cool but then we got to go in here:


Inside were 3 of the aircraft in various stages of inspection:




The business end:


I had my coworker hold up a quarter to illustrate the scale:


We were prohibited from taking any pics of the cockpit but this was a neat shot from the access ladder:


The Round


Ordinance:


More ordinance:


They even opened up the bottom of the plane so we could see the gun!








I have always admired these aircraft - and now even more so after this experience.

The fact that these planes are all +30 Years old and are still in active use is a testament to the technology of the era.

I start this thread so that other may share their admiration of this kick ass gun that the military attached a plane to.

 

These are pretty B/A.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6itQfUwF1o

 

That's some good stuff.

We got to see some actual combat footage after the hangar tour that was unreal... The gun literally cut a tank in half.

 

In Korea. I got to participate in a live fire exercise. That bird is freaking awesome.

 

Damn.. Just damn. Idk what I'd do if I was on the receiving end of that

 

Use one of these and pray you get to f--- virgins if you miss...

 

Two giant engines flying a bfg - what could be better.....

 

In Tom Clancy's classic Red Storm Rising, the Russian armored forces dub it the "Devil's Cross" due to its ability to destroy tanks and armor. This book was written in the early 80's, long before it was tested in battle. I have seen these many times at air shows and was on vacation at Bass Lake one year when two of them buzzed the lake, I still get a hard on when I think back on that. The lake is sort of "s" shaped and shrouded in mountains and tall pines, you could hear those big GE's screaming and then they came around one of the curves in the lake, maybe 200 feet off the water, un-f'n believable.

 

Yes, the A10 is the baddest planes out there. Definitely my favorite.

 

I saw one at an airshow at Langley AFB. In the summer of 1973!

 

Boeing was contracted to replace the wings on them to extend their service life. Think I read somewhere that the contract survived being cut this year, although the USAF is decommissioning a few A-10 squadrons. About 250 or so A-10's will be left in the inventory.

 

I've witnessed the a10 do some serious damage to about 12 Taliban. Shit was classic.

 

Sick!

 

Def some cool planes!

 

Great pics thankyou one bad ass warbird :thumbup:

 

That's pretty damned good, considering that just before Desert Storm, the whole fleet was scheduled for retirement because the morons in DC felt that the F16 was perfectly capable of providing CAS.

 

Badass plane for sure.

Idk why kids these days revere the raptors as being better than these.

This is as close as anyone will get to the business end and live to talk about it.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xuYmn_xYB78

 

That thing is BADASS, thanks for sharing the pics and vids guys

 

this pic popped up on thechive