The Aircraft That Inspired the A-10

Real Clear Defense ^ | September 29, 2014 | Michael Peck

[C19fan]

It’s a good thing that the Air Force generals who want to retire the beloved A-10 Warthog were not around 70 years ago.

If they were, Josef Stalin might have had them shot.

The Soviet dictator loved the A-10 of his day, otherwise known as the Ilyushin Il-2 Sturmovik. “They are as essential to the Red Army as bread and water,” he said.

It is the Sturmovik, along with the German Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber, that fathered the A-10. “The World War II close air support successes of both the Stuka and the Sturmovik had a major—and inspiring—influence in convincing all of us early A-X/A-10 proponents that close support was by far the most important mission of air power, certainly more so than strategic bombing,” A-10 designer Pierre Sprey tells War is Boring.

[Sans-Culotte]

I prefer the IL-2 Sturmovik for comparison to the A-10, rather than the Stuka. The Stuka’s glory days were the Blitzkrieg when the Reich over-ran hopelessly out-matched enemies. I think the IL-2 was better at low flying strafing runs like the A-10, while the Stuka was basically just a dive bomber.

[huldah1776]

http://www.revell.com/model-kits/aircraft/index.html

enjoy. If you are near Spfld I used to get them at Hobby Lobby.

[Nip]

An interesting article but some what off the mark.

The A-10’s Statement of Work (SOW), what the AF wanted to achieve, mentioned replacing the A-1 in the Search-and-Rescue mission (Call Sign “Sandy”) and in the close air support mission supporting Special Operation Forces in Vietnam.

Probably the best source of the A-10’s historical background is “Muck” Brown. “Muck” started leading the charge to keep the A-10 on active duty starting in 1990. Some of his professional articles, not published in AF professional journals, mentioned the SOW and why the A-10 community needed to return to their roots.

Almost a quarter of a century later the A-10 is being saved from the boneyard at DM (for the third time) because nobody does it better.

[Sequoyah101]

NOTHING we have or will have is as rugged or can do the same job as the A-10. As someone pointed out, just one lucky shot can take out an F-15, 18, 22 or 35. It takes one very luck single shot to take out an A-10 and the pilot in his armored bath tub.

They do have problems working in areas of elevated ground levels such as the mountains of Afghanistan.

It would be stupid to cut out this paid for, recently upgraded, service life extended, low cost to operate, rugged, reliable and effective platform.

At $22 mm a copy the Embraer toy-COIN aircraft is more of a joke than it is already when compared to the A-10.

[Tallguy]

“What’s incredible is that for the first two years of the war Rudel was thought to be a poor pilot and was denied a combat role because of it.”

Israel’s top all-time ace was initially assigned to helicopters because of an evaluation coming out of flight school that he was not suitable for jet aircraft. Everybody makes mistakes, and sometimes there are late-bloomers, I guess?

[pierrem15]

Not so sure about that: it's an incredibly tough aircraft and is built to be able to be raked by 12.7mm (.50 cal) ammunition and still fly.

Some A10's in Iraq took incredible damage from ground fire and still flew.

[Vinnie]

One of my treasures is a B-17 print “No Empty Bunks Tonight” by Bill Phillips.

Wm. Phillips is fantastic. I think every one of his paintings has a plane in it, One of my favorites is 'Victory Pass', P-51 Mustangs overflying a German castle.

[MasterGunner01]

Hans Ulrich Rudel was one heck of a pilot. Shot down on 8 February 1945, one leg was amputated below the knee. On 25 March 1945, Rudel returned to flying close air support missions until the end of the war.

Another pilot with artificial legs was Sir Douglas Bader, RAF. Bader lost both legs in a 1931 crash. He was restored to flying duty with the RAF after war began in September 1939. Bader fought in France and through the battle of Britain. He was shot down over France in April 1941 and captured. After several foiled escape attempts, he was sent to Colditz Castle for the duration of the war. Bader was liberated from Colditz Castle in April 1945. Bader was so dedicated to escaping captivity and rejoining the fight that his German captors had to lock up his artificial legs at night. Bader retired from the RAF in February 1946.

[GreyFriar]

Tucker,

I hate to contradict you, but that is a B-24J in Phillips’ painting of “No Empty Bunks Tonight.” I happen to own a print of it and am looking at it right now. I bought it because my father was a nose gunner on the B-24J.

Here is a link:

http://www.greenwichworkshop.com/details/default.asp?p=118&a=49&t=1&page=4&detailtype=artist

[SkyDancer]

Gramps was saying that the B24 was a better plane than the B17 - the only reason of the notoriety of the B17 was the movie “Twelve O’clock High” - he says the flight deck on a B24 was like super comfortable for one thing, secondly it flew higher and faster and carried a bigger bomb load ...

[zot]

Thanks for the info about your father, and the link to the picture of the B-24J.

[Yo-Yo]

Yes, the A-10 is built to be raked by .50 cal, and even some 20mm and keep on flying.

That is a permissible airspace.

It is not designed to absorb surface-to-air missiles, air-to-air missiles, or radar guided anti-aircraft artillery at the altitudes and airspeeds that the Warthog flies.

I’m not saying ditch the A-10. Quite the opposite, it is a very valuable aircraft that we need to keep for future use. It’s just not as effective for close air support in an impermissible airspace as a faster F-15 or B-2 armed with JDAMs.

The problem is the zoomie Generals think that JDAMs are the only answer, when that 30mm cannon in the A-10 is a more economical solution in many environments like Afghanistan.

[pierrem15]

Still not so sure after reading more details about the armor and redundant systems: it seems to me most air-to-air missiles are simply too small to do enough damage.

The plane was designed to survive multiple hits from up to 23mm armor piercing or HE rounds and designed to fly with one tail and half a wing missing and only one engine. The engines were also placed to reduce IR signature.

No, it would probably not survive a big radar guided SAM.

But I bet if it hugged the ground with evasive maneuvers at low speed it would be very hard for a fighter traveling twice as fast to get low enough to get a good lock or to spend enough time on target to accurately engage with guns: it would be like trying to kill an armored roach running around the kitchen floor while you ran through the kitchen.