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To: Wright is right!
Whomever designed the A-10 really did a good day's work.

They sure did, and were rewarded by having their company go out of business. A-10 was designed and built by the Fairchild-Republic. (I think that was the name at the time) Some of the support functions were taken over by Grumman for a while at least. Now I've lost track. I know (Northrop-)Gruman doesn't do the support work, I think Lockeed-Martin does. It wasn't the A-10 that did in Republic, it was a trainer, the T-46 Eaglet, aka the Thunder Piglet. Fairchild Industries was trying to sell Fairchild-Republic at the time the T-46 was being desinged, prototypes built and tested. Eventualy they just shut it down. Republic also designed a couple of other pretty rugged airplanes, the P-47 Thunderbolt of WW-II, for which the A-10 is named, and the F-105 Thundechief used extensively in Vietnam.

14 posted on 04/09/2003 10:21:47 AM PDT by El Gato
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To: El Gato
I never knew what caused the demise of Farchild. I do know that a lot of us would park on a country road just outside of my hometown of Hagerstown,MD. just to watch the finished Warthogs fly in pairs and do some impressive maneuvers at fairly low level.Not superfast, but they seemed to turn on a dime. My all time favorite warplane.
15 posted on 04/09/2003 1:27:28 PM PDT by zygoat
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