A 10 descended in purpose from the eponymous P 47 THUNDERBOLT! Superlative in ground support role.
Again up thread: my “boots on the ground” friends *love* the sound of an A-10 providing CAS (close air support). Brrrrr. That 20mm cannon makes a mess of the bad guys.
The A-10 is not so much of a hard to kill plane with an auto cannon. It’s a hard to kill auto cannon with wings.
Yeah, thanks for bringing up the P47… “The Jug”… awesome ground attack aircraft. Unfortunately even with drop tanks, it couldn’t escort the Bombers too far into enemy airspace… they had to wait for the P51Ds to come along for that….
I was thinking more of the “big gun, rugged platform” aspect”… plus the twin vertical stabs on both the Mitchell and the Warthog; it reminded me of the Mitchell.
Imagine the guy that said “Hey!!!! Let’s put a 75mm in the nose of the B25 and she what she do…!” A real hold my beer moment, lol!!!
Hard to believe that the Warthog was designed back in the 70s… wonder how many avionics upgrades it’s been through since then…