Posted on 01/07/2019 8:27:46 AM PST by gaijin
Some speculate this testbed aircraft might be a more modern, low-cost, stealthy option for a ground-attack platform similar to the A-10.
No one knows the reason for the extreme dihedral of the wings, a feature not made clear by the photo at left, maybe some freepers can do some meaningful speculation.
The video at link shows this feature in quite some detail.
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Sometimes called "Son of Ares", this aircraft is built around the GAU-12 25 x 137 mm (see photo at right), so this round is not nearly the monster carried by the Warthog.
From appearances, this newer, single-engine a/c can probably not withstand a whole lot of the punishment that the Warthog shrugs off.
But this one is stealthy and experts speculate it might instead be armed with a directed energy weapon.
I believe no one is asserting that this non-production testbed could be an outright REPLACEMENT for the A-10.
Blohm and Voss had a single offset engine for the BV 141 in 1938. So he's trailing the Nazis by about 80 years.
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