It even carried the Toilet Bomb
Posted on 09/19/2015 11:40:53 AM PDT by Forgotten Amendments
B-17
Bombs:
Short range missions (<400 mi): 8,000 lb (3,600 kg) Long range missions (≈800 mi): 4,500 lb (2,000 kg) Overload: 17,600 lb (7,800 kg)
A-6
Armament:
Hardpoints: 5 total: 4 wing and 1 fuselage with 18,000 lb (8,170 kg) load
And hit the target at night IFR!
“The B-24 and B-29 were supposed to be upgrades over the old B-17. But neither was nearly as dependable and the crews all preferred the B-17. “
LOL!
Please list any advantages the B-17 had over the B-29.
I will get you started ...
1. It crashed better than the B-29
In which service did you serve as an ALO? I'm trying to understand your POV.
I’ve heard someone say he builds things under budget and on time. Think the defense contractors would go for makin new ones or would they have to be fired?
Looks like a P-51 canopy on that magnificent bastard of a plane.
true, true. I left off the A-6.
All of the previous birds would lose a wing-mount (under-body) mount to carry a laser designation, but then, with the laser, their bombs would hit first-time each time so one mission would be more effective than 5 or 6 unguided missions from 8-12 manually-flown Korea or Vietnam-era bombers.
Sometimes you need to cover acres of ground around a target that doesn’t move. But not always.
That was easily done with the early model GPS systems. With the Army issued Trimble Trimpack GPS system, if it was loaded with different Datum than was entered on the aircraft GPS, coordinates could differ up to 1,000 meters.
How many rounds per minute is the cannon capable of firing? In real combat, how long in time does the usual/average burst last? One second long? Two? Longer?
laplata ~ The A-10 belongs in the Army.
rdl6989 ~ Agreed.
...and/or The Marines!
Absolutely.
laplata ~ The A-10 belongs in the Army.
rdl6989 ~ Agreed.
...and/or The Marines!
Absolutely.
And Army.
The Army wouldn’t know how to employ it. I say that as a former ALO who has tried to explain airpower to brigade commanders. They are not flying tanks.
General Patton and other Army commanders used Army Air Force Tactical Air very effectively.
I agree.
Tell the Air Force to fully, enthusiastically support the A-10 and its mission or we’ll shut them down and crank back up the Army Air Forces.
They did during the Vietnam War and could easily again. I’m sure the Marines would like to have them also.
“The problem is that flying tanks are indeed needed. They resent a ground commander telling him what they need blown up.”
No. And the Army brigade commanders I worked with agreed with me, after working with me. A plane is NOT a tank and should not pretend to be one.
“That never happened I guess”
The point is that it happened with P-47s. It happened with Marine F-4 working with Marine units in WW2. It has happened with A-10s. It happens LESS using targeting pods and data links.
I was USAF. I also worked with targeting pods, and I also have worked with A-10s. I’ve also done 10 deg dive bombs in the F-4 and I fully understand the difficulty of target acquisition at 200 feet, having flown there many times. If you’ve never had 3 seconds to figure out which was friendly and which was foe, and later had 60 seconds to do it with a guy on the ground data linking and seeing what you saw in your pod...well, you don’t understand the modern close air support picture.
I’ve also had to point out to Army Cols the reason they were not getting any air was that the Army GENERAL wanted the air elsewhere. It was not the USAF refusing them air, but their own general.
What was wrong with the B58? Supersonic at treetop alt. and a mean 2000 RPM cannon. You could hang 2Volkswagens on its wings to boot.
Thanks for the clarification. Still not a WWII design - based on a design that’s actually newer than the A-10. So my comment, as amended, stands.
And instead, we handily won the largest tank battle since WWII. To him I say: Blow it out your Champs Elysees, Pierre.
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