The race 10 titanium alloy bathtub cockpit underside is hard to match or beat. Its fun to watch A 10 pilots practicing over semis and motorhomes on I 10 outside of Davis Month an AFB in Tucson. The drivers are totally unaware.
ah! the A-10 Thunderbolt II (aka Warthog) : one of the safest, most-reliable combat aircraft ever built.
But dang it! the girl wasn’t hit with the ugly stick, she was the ugly stick’s momma!
The WartHog is like a helicopter, but more aerodynamic and way less counter intuitive.
Saddam’s fearless republican guard was scared sh!tless of the A-10.
Firing plenty-o-bullets through a prop is a definite problem.
Transfer the A10 to the Army.
The A-10 is the red-headed stepchild of the Air Force.
P51 is a gorgeous plane but, it’s not going to do what an A10 does and protect the pilots.
That PA-48 is one damn neat plane, though, if in a totally different class.
HA, What a coincidence.
I’m watching an old 12:00 High episode, and it is about the first P-51s to show up in the European Theater:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0734468/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2
The Warthog is a BEAST!!! Kicked the shit out of the Republican Guard in the Gulf War !!!
As a fighter, the P-51 Mustang was a classic; as a ground support weapon, not so much. The under fuselage oil cooler was its most vulnerable point — one hit there and the engine would seize solid in 10 minutes when it ran out of oil. The radial engined P-47 Thunderbolt was the toughest fighter-bomber when it came to ground support. Well armed and armored, the P-47s air-cooled radial engine kept running when it took battle damage and brought its pilot home. A Mustang pilot would have had to walk home through occupied territory. The Thunderbolt's eight .50 calibers, two 500 lb. bombs and ten 5-inch rockets could really ruin an enemy's day.
Today's A-10 is the USAF equivalent to the WW2 P-47. The official name for the A-10 is Thunderbolt II. The F-16 Fighting Falcon is equivalent to the P-51 Mustang — and just as vulnerable doing the job of close air support (CAS). If the USAF is successful at retiring the A-10, the US Army or other ground forces will loose their best and most effective CAS weapon. And, NO, the F-15E or F-35A or F-16C...none can assume the role of the A-10 and survive.
The Mustang was highly vulnerable to ground fire because of its radiator location. The P-47 had an air-cooled radial, was much more heavily armored, and carried a larger load of ordnance. The best work in Korean CAS was done by Marine F-4U Corsairs, AD Skyraiders, and a really great unsung British carrier-based plane, the Hawker Sea Fury FB11 in fighter-bomber trim.
The Turbo-Prop P-48 was a marvelous concept in many ways, but no match for the capability of the A-10 and was a bit of a commercial failure. The concept lives on in the Embraer Super-Tucano and sells successfully for use in counter-insurgency conflicts, especially when the enemy has no air power to oppose it. My personal fave for this role: The Rockwell OV-10. Never understood why it wasn't more popular. Too practical for military procurement, I guess.
I’ve always felt the A-10 was ugly the way a junk yard dog is ugly. It’s not going to win any pageants, but boy howdy, when it bares its fangs, you’d BETTER show it some respect!
If they were to use aircraft from WWII to replace the A10 there are only two that come to mind. That would be the P38 or the B25 gunship. Both were/are great close air support crafts. Just think about placing two 30mm in the nose of the B25 now that would be a show!
Darn it! Now where did the plane go I built for my auto cannon?
P-51 with it’s water cooled engine was always a poor choice for ground attack. A-1 was excellent until heat seeking MANPADS got good enough that they could engage it from head on. I’d be inclined to think that a radial mounted in a pusher configuration would be hard to beat in terms of loiter time and ability to go low and slow.