Titanium travertine bathtub
Looks kind of heavy?
Posted on 01/26/2021 3:41:06 PM PST by DUMBGRUNT
Pilots discuss how the A-10 Warthog's tight turning radius coupled with its big gun means it can sting even the best fighters in a dogfight.
While the “Warthog” isn’t optimized for the air superiority role and lacks key capabilities, such as high-speed, radar, and radar-guided long-range missiles that make its fighter brethren such air-to-air supremos, even the greatest fighter pilots are rightfully wary of getting into a close-in turning dogfight with a ‘lowly’ mud-moving A-10.
the U.S. Air Force Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, actually teaches the art of Basic Fighter Maneuvers (BFM) in its bi-annual A-10 class, just in case pilots find themselves in a sticky situation with a pouncing enemy fighter.
Colonel Denny “Gator” Yount retired from the USAF in 2011 with an impressive 3,852 hours in the A-10. He says that of the many highlights in his career, specializing in A-10 BFM at the Weapons School as an instructor ranks as one of the most rewarding. “The air-to-air guys have a radar and they are a lot faster than we are, but they quickly learn that it doesn’t pay for them to get into the proverbial phone booth with us for a close-in dogfight.”
“BFM was one of my natural inclinations,” Yount continues. “I was always pretty good at it, having started out as a T-38 Talon Instructor Pilot.
Yount says: “The fighters generally stay high and try to point their nose in, trying to get the shot, and then get the hell out of there — because we can’t chase them out high and we can’t run them down. But if they stay in the turning fight with us in our environment we are very happy to do that all day long.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thedrive.com ...
“I wonder how far the misses can fly.”
A fascinating question!
A quick search, nothing solid.
On to my Guru... he used to have some Hatcher data tables somewhere... not much?
I have a PDF of the Hatcher Handbook, not searchable.???
Available in TXT, should be searchable but from 1940s, not likely they have data on this 30mm projectile.
https://archive.org/details/Hatchers_Notebook
This is my Guru for ballistics and fun reading.
https://www.frfrogspad.com/miscella.htm#maximum
“In a vacuum a firearm would achieve its absolute maximum range at an elevation of 45°. However, with typical small arms projectiles the effect of air resistance is so great that maximum range is usually obtained at a departure angle of between 29° and 35°. The table below gives the calculated approximate absolute maximum ranges for some common rounds using modern drag modeling techniques at standard sea level conditions, and a not so common projectile. It may differ from some previously published data based on older methods of computation. The data indicated by “#” is from government firing tables.”
And he does address the firing from elevation maxium range.
The ‘Chopper Popper’ scored the A-10’s first air-to-air kill…against an Iraqi helicopter
After the war, Swain went back to his job flying Boeing 747s for U.S. Air and is still in the Air Force Reserve, now with the rank of Colonel.
Concur with the 12,000 foot accurate strafing. Very easy to get hits at that distance.
Qualified in F-5/F-4 and A-10. The Hog was definitely the most fun. It was hard to keep the oxygen mask hooked up because I was grinning so much.
I’ve done well in phone booths with F-15/16 but separating out is a whole ‘nuther issue.
Back in the mid 1970s, my USMC squadron sent a Sikorsky CH-53D [Super Jolly Green Giant) to Top Gun. They bolted a gun camera on the sponson and programed the range computers as if it was armed with Sidewinders.
Our pilots figured out that if they stayed right down on the deck, the fighter radars of that time did not have good ‘look down/shoot down ‘ capibility. So the helo would stay low, looking up for the fighters. Once spotted, they would turn toward him, wait until his dive angle got too steep and he broke off. Then the CH-53 would do a “buttonhook” and pop a Sidewinder up the fighter’s tailpipe.
The 53 was 50-50 against all fighters in the inventory, except the Harrier, which won 90% of the time.
Sahib can put a sidewinder on his Cessna.
He can also put a Silkworm antiship missile on it and take out a destroyer.
It doesn’t mean his air platform is superior. The naval corollary is the USS Cole incident where a destroyer was taken out by an inflatable lifeboat.
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That sounds very familiar to me. I recall similar exercises where the Harrier pulled up vertically 100 feet, pointed their radar and missile tracker at the fighter jets, and recorded multiple kills.
Nowadays, such a thing can be done with drones as far as I can tell.
Do ya got a link to the original article?
Here’s a GREAT story of an F-15 (Israeli) pilot who somehow defied McDonnell Douglas engineers who said it was not possible for an F-15 to fly, little own LAND, with 1 wing.
That’s correct - an F-15 with ONE (port side) wing, and nothing but leaking fuel starboard side.
https://theaviationist.com/2014/09/15/f-15-lands-with-one-wing/
I know the Air Force hates this aircraft, but I love it!
Look up the High YoYo.
Mig 17s and 19s could turn way tighter then Phantoms or Navy F 8s.
Using their higher power and climb rate the US pilots would go vertical and be turn inside the enemy. Three a lot more to dog fighting then turning radius.
The A 10 is the greatest at what it was designed for, ground attack .
Hahahahahah...As long as I am not Nailed to The Hull...:)
Had an A-10 pilot tell me this— The A-10 is a titanium bathtub cockpit with an aircraft built around it, they put the gatling gun on it to make it sexy. Ultimate tank, bunker, and vehicle killer, hands down, no contest.
What a novel way to die!
Titanium travertine bathtub
Looks kind of heavy?
Yeah, separating is darned near impossible, so hide at low level, defeat with turns and then go offensive.
Never lost a turning fight with anything out there. Found German Low Fly 7 to be the most fun. Heck, even German 104’s zipped under us, but at any given time we would be bounced by anything.
NATO exercise, supposed to go to an EW range in France. Called and called to get approval from the French controllers to cross into France. No answer. Climbed and contacted the Legion’s helo on the range and after standing by for about 5-min, he called me and said I am cleared to enter. About 15-min after crossing saw a F-1 swooping down out of the Sun, trying to get on our 6.
I called a 180 turn and the F-1 quarter-planed and attempted to reposition so we turned again and again he zoomed up and attempted another entry. He was not going away so I pitched back and up (rapidly losing speed) and put my gun in his face, he zoomed up and ran away. Rest of the mission uneventful.
0345 mass brief the next day, had an American controller, a German controller and a French controller and the French controller started to fuss at us all about somebody that entered France without permission and the Frence were angry.
After the brief the American and German and American controller came to my wingman and I. They told us they hate the French and knew it was me but told the French controller the call-sign mission details were shredded at the end of the day (yeah, right), so no way to find out who it was.
Seems the French controllers heard me calling but it was time for their cheese and wine break so they refused to answer. When they saw us enter France, they scrambled a live strip-alert fighter to intercept us.
France. . .always a team player.
Anyway, I am diverted. . .flew the Hog out of Bentwaters (I’m an old guy), then Alconbury, then the school house at D-M. You?
I was a FAC with the 101at during Gulf War I. Loved the A-10 but my heart hurt when I would call in Hogs flown by pilots I trained.
Happy and sad at the same time.
;-)
Countless times, I imagine.
And I transitioned from the A-10 to the F-15E. . .A-10 most fun and the community of A-10 pilots was a true brotherhood.
I don’t think those necessarily mean air to air kills, and more likely destroyed on the runway and verified by gun camera.
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