A-10 pilot manages to 'belly land' his plane after canopy blows off, and landing gear fails

Business Insider ^ | 8/15/17 | ALEX LOCKIE

[Rebelbase]

After a routine training run in Alpena County, Michigan in late July, US Air National Guard Capt. Brett DeVries survived the perfect storm of malfunctions to safely land his A-10 Thunderbolt II on its belly without the benefit of landing gear.

During a training exercise where A-10 pilots practice dropping inert bombs and ripping the planes' massive gun, DeVries' gun malfunctioned. Moments later, his canopy blew off his plane as he flew along at 375 miles an hour, according to a US Air National Guard write up of the event .

The incredible winds smacked DeVries head against his seat, nearly incapacitating him. "It was like someone sucker punched me," he said. "I was just dazed for a moment."

DeVries wingman, Major Shannon Vickers, then flew under his plane to assess the damage, finding bad news. The panels under his plane had been damaged, and it was unclear if he would be able to lower his landing gear.

[Yosemitest]

Part of me misses the job, because it was an adrenaline rush and a half.
But I'm glad I retired when I did, because there NO WAY I could serve under today's social engineering crap, and Obama's crazy rules of engagement.
But from what I hear, Trump's cut a lot of the B.S. out of the "rules of engagement".
Now if he'll get rid of the crazies that the "Do't Ask, Don't Tell" policy let into the military, it might get better !
But military retiree healthcare is lacking on all fronts, and the V.A. is still screwed up !
About all I got out of retirement is some meds, and my retirement check.
But I haven't had a REAL "Cost of Living" raise since I retired.
Congress should be lower on the pay scale than the military, and should have the same lousy healthcare !

[Psalm 73]

"...land his A-10 Thunderbolt II on its belly without the benefit of landing gear."
...DeVries' gun malfunctioned....his canopy blew off his plane as he flew along at 375 miles an hour..."

Maintenance failures on at least three critical components during the same flight.
Crew chief has some 'splainin' to do...

[Tallguy]

Sorry. Every quote that I have read from pilots actually having flown the F-35 has been positive. You & I can be skeptical of the airplane but we should keep the criticism on-point.

All combat jets with an A2A mission have been designed to be aerodynamically unstable for the last 40 years. That’s why we have computer (fly-by-wire) controls.

The A-10 is a fine aircraft, but it has problems in contested airspace. 6 of 27 aircraft lost in the Gulf War were A-10’s. We also lost five Marine AV-8B Harriers which have a similar mission. Counterbalancing those stats we have to recognize that the A-10’s sortie rate was much higher than other aircraft types and several came back pretty badly shot up... but they did bring their pilots back.

[Hot Tabasco]

I think that was part of the multi national training exercise which hosted over 6,000 military personnel this year........

[Flag_This]

"Crew chief has some 'splainin' to do... "

This story reminds me that they lost one of the two F-104 Starfighter prototypes when its M61 Vulcan malfunctioned and the resulting damage caused the aircraft to crash.

[Yosemitest]

Computers are useful in SOME areas.
But in a combat aircraft with todays's threats, computers are questionable, at best.
Unless we shield the aircraft, and thus make the weight a real aerodynamic problem, computer dependent aircraft could become "Lawn Darts" very quickly, and at the time when we need them the most.

For instance we now have EMP transmitters that can be placed on cruise missiles and on ships.

China's new microwave weapon can disable missiles and paralyze tanks
An electronics-killing ray has a variety of uses in war.
By Jeffrey Lin and P.W. Singer January 26, 2017

This weapon, which can pump out high-powered microwaves from a relatively small platform, could be the start of a new chapter in Chinese electronic warfare.

For over 6 years, Huang Wenhua and his team at the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology in Xi'an have been working on a potent microwave weapon. This one, which recently won China's National Science and Technology Progress Award, is small enough to fit on a lab work bench, making it theoretically portable enough for land vehicles and aircraft.

Said another way: it's small enough to be convenient, but powerful enough to totally down enemy electronics. A microwave weapon like this could even be fitted to a missile (like the U.S. CHAMP electronic warfare missile) or drone.

Generally, microwave weapons shut down electronic systems (even those with traditional shielding against EMP) by bombarding the target with energy pulses between 300 and 300,000 megahertz. This amount of directed energy interferes with and overloads electronic circuits, causing them to shut down. The higher the energy produced by the system, the greater the disruption (and even physical damage for some very high-powered microwave weapons) of the targeted electronic systems like engines and communications systems.

China can find a wide variety of uses for an electronics killing ray. Defensively, microwave weapons could be part of electronic warfare booby traps, ambushing and disabling enemy vehicles and robots. At close ranges, it can be mounted on vehicles, warships, and even aircraft, to disable and distract missiles, small UAVs and even the personal and vehicular electronics of hostile forces. But the real combat potential of the microwave weapon comes in offense. Carried in by a stealthy drone or cruise missile, it would be able to disable sophisticated enemy defenses like SAM and anti-ship missile batteries; fry enemy radars, communications, and control systems; paralyze tank battalions; and even neutralize other EW platforms.

...

But they're not the only ones with these weapons.
Other nations have them also, including the USA . Do you know about CHAMP and its capabilities ?

Counter-electronics High-powered Microwave Advanced Missile Project (CHAMP) ( 2:17 )
defenseupdate on on May 16, 2015

Consider the USS Fitzgerald .
Read this

USS Fitzgerald — The Victim of an Electromagnetic Warfare Attack.

... I am presenting it for your consideration, as I know many readers here are following this story – we have the following:

The first time the container ship approached the USS Fitzgerald, the Fitz was still fully functional.

An airplane or drone flying overhead was responsible for the energy pulse that killed all electricity on the warship. (the whole event took place in the wee hours of the morning from 1:30 to 2:20 AM)

The container ship was required to turn back toward the Fitzgerald to do its job as commanded by whoever EMPulsed the ship.

In turning back to do the “job” the container ship did not have great positioning to destroy the vessel and so ended up only disabling rather than sinking the thing.

Thus, the CIA-planned story (aka false flag attack) could not be used as many on board the Fitzgerald saw what really happened, and survived.

The CIA plot was probably an attack by Russia or China or NK.  A contingency plan was then quickly implemented; one that they could feed to those present as a legitimate story.

The bottom line here is that this attack was quite likely a false flag operation in the tradition of the USS Maine (“Remember the Maine!”), the RMS Lusitania (World War I false flag), and the USS Maddox (aka the Gulf of Tonkin inciden).

Conclusion

Either someone wants war.  Or, someone else seeks to prevent war.

While this attack on the USS Fitzgerald appears to be a typical CIA-coordinated false flag attack designed to start a war, it appears to have been a real attack perpetrated to prevent one.

In other words, it was an conspiracy within a conspiracy, and/or a false flag within a false flag. Yes, it’s really that complicated.  As it frequently when one camp is trying to start a war as aggressively as the other side is working to avert one.

To my knowledge, no one from government, or corporate controlled media, has yet even stated that this was an attack: the “attack” hypothesis seems to be largely concentrated – at present – in the free and independent media.

The scenario is, however, worth noting, because as the article itself avers, the incident could be seen as a part of a wider pattern of such electromagnetic interference with US forces, beginning with the now infamous Donald Cook incident, to the alleged Russian defeat of NATO communications systems in Syria shortly after that nation’s intervention there, to a repeat of the Donald Cook incident, involving the Donald Cook once again, this time, in the Baltic Sea with yet another Russian Sukhoi-22 fighter-bomber. While I have not seen corroboration of the allegation that there was an airplane overhead during the incident, there would not need to be, if indeed this was an electromagnetic attack, which for the reasons outlined above I believe it to be. Such an attack could have come from the container ship itself or other nearby vessels, and perhaps even from the shore.

For my two cents’ worth of high octane speculation, however, I have difficulty believing this was a CIA plot that was also, as the article states “an attack by Russia or China or (North Korea).” This would imply the CIA is in cahoots with those nations in an overly complicated plot to start a war. While I don’t put anything past the departments and agencies of the federal swamp and believe they’re pretty much capable of anything in spite of the many good people in government, I just find that one a bit too much to swallow.

What I don’t have difficult swallowing, however, is the possibility that those nations may have learned of a plot, or course of action. After all, the US Navy has recently deployed three carrier battle groups to that region, which is an enormous concentration of naval power usually presaging some sort of American action.

Then…

… the electronics system, and maybe even the steerage system, of an expensive frigate fails…

…completely.

And that translates into the message that the article begins with: “your navy may not be in as solid control of the sea lanes as you think it is.” And that means the same might go for (1) aircraft, and more importantly (2) space-based assets, if a similar electromagnetic platform exists in space, or on the ground capable of reaching space. And that means in turn, those “smart bombs” may not work too well, and it may be rather difficult moving troops and supplies to deal with “threats.”

Of course, for years, there have been rumors that the Russians have very advanced electronic warfare systems, rumors which the Russians from time to time have “stoked.” Shortly after the first incident with the Donald Cook, Russian television aired a one hour review of some of those systems – no doubt for the deliberate attention of analysts in the Pentagram – and the effect of that broadcast was that it gave the impression that this electronic warfare interference with missile systems would make them behave like wildly misfiring bottle rockets, going off crazily in all directions… everywhere, but on target.

It’s a very Russian sort of approach to such things. The American anti-missile system is, we’ve been told, one of the approach of hitting a bullet with a bullet. The Russian anti-missile system approach is simple to interfere with the flight path by whatever means, including scrambling the electronics and turning expensive American rockets into crazy bottlerockets.

In any case, messages are being sent, and it’s interesting to note that, for a brief moment, things quieted down after the Fitzgerald incident.

See you on the flip side…

[BlackbirdSST]

Ya, and a little JB weld will fix er right up.

Throw in a little TurtleWax and that'll buff right out!

[Strac6]

JB Weld is great stuff, but not as well known as it should be.

Repairman wanted to junk our dishwasher due to big stress crack in motor mount.

$4.99 of JB Weld and it’s fine 7 years later.

[huldah1776]

I want to fly with a great pilot!

[huldah1776]

God withdraws after His people turn their backs on Him. We’ve been doing that for over 50 years.

[OA5599]

I was around during the trials between the FY-35 and the FY-22. The Fy-22 beat it in EVERY Category.

Not to defend the F-35, I believe you have a few things mixed up.

First off the Lockheed YF-22 (not FY-22) was flown against the Northrop YF-23 for the ATF competition in 1990. It was a close competition. The YF-22 was more maneuverable and was able to demonstrate missile launching capability. The YF-23 was faster and stealthier. In 1991, the YF-22 was selected and went into production as the F-22.

Second, the Lockheed X-35 (not FY-35) was flown against the Boeing X-32A and X-32B for the JSF competition in 2000. It was NOT a close competition. Boeing needed two demonstrators to compete as they were unable to transition from STVOL configuration to supersonic configuration in flight as the X-35 was capable of doing. The X-32 also had hydraulic leaks and lost power during hovering due to exhaust gasses getting sucked into the intake. In 2001, the X-35 was selected and went into production as the F-35.

Personally, I'd rather see continued F-22 production with a navalized version and a separate less costly AV-8 replacement program instead of the F-35A/B/C.

[huldah1776]

hmmm. Now I know why Revelation talks about horses and swords. :)

[generally]

Amen. Great job.

He’ll have bar stories for the rest of his life.

[OA5599]

From your link:

The four aircraft made six bomb passes over the gunnery range, dropping their ordinance.

I mix a lot of words up. So it makes me feel better that a guy writing for the Air National Guard mixed up ordinance and ordnance. The only way for me to remember the correct words is to make up stupid little sayings. Like "drop the 'i' to drop a bomb" in this case.

[crz]

It gets that from her Daddy-the P47. Those would come in with the hell blown out of them..with jugs blown off the engine and everything, and they would still run.

Great airplanes.

[Rebelbase]

“I mix a lot of words up. So it makes me feel better that a guy writing for the Air National Guard mixed up ordinance and ordnance.”

This day and age it’s possible auto correct did it.

[crz]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyPvpdy4dgg

The engine of another thunderbolt, among others. Might want to turn the speakers up a tad.

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=operation+bodenplatte+documentary

Must have been a hell of a mess.
Used to live near KI Sawyer airbase and they would have open house once a year. I got to talk to a couple pilots that flew the A 10 and they said that they would give their right *&^ to get to fly the P47 just once.
These guys love their planes.

[Galatians513]

No one so far has mentioned the fact that the A-10 was designed to survive belly landings. From Wikipedia:

"The wheels of the main landing gear partially protrude from their nacelles when retracted, making gear-up belly landings easier to control and less damaging. All landing gears are hinged toward the aircraft's rear; if hydraulic power is lost, a combination of gravity and aerodynamic drag can open and lock the gear in place."

[OA5599]

What’s pretty wild is that there are only 35 years separating the introduction of the P-47 and the A-10 while there are 40 years separating the introduction of the A-10 and today.

[OA5599]

True