The Warthog is a most excellent flying cannon platform, able to operate in close support of ground troops, and can destroy most armored vehicles on the ground with a short burst of its Gatling machine gun, a “point and shoot” REAL assault weapon.
Besides, it can carry a pretty useful supply of air-to-ground missiles, great for breaking up motorized columns in convoy.
And it can hop in and out of short runways and under what would be extremely adverse conditions for most other aircraft. Also, it has almost unbelievable airworthiness even under serious damage, as it has multiple redundant air surface control mechanisms. Should the hydraulics fail for any reason, it can still cripple home with an underlying mechanical control system. There is even a crank-down for the landing gear, should it be needed.
Feed this beast. It is the right aerial assault weapon for close-in fighting.
Sounds like a devastating weapon!! good :0
Former A-10 crew chief here.
There is no ‘crank down’ for the landing gear.
If you look at the design of the landing gear and the fairings, you’ll see they are all on the back of the landing gear (with the exception of one on the nose gear). They are all designed to use gravity assisted by air flow to push the gear down in the event of complete hydraulic system failure.
As a last resort, the aircraft is designed to land “gear up’ with minimal damage to the air frame. Note that the main tires stick out the bottom of the wheel wells. That was intentional, not a byproduct of saving weight or some such thing.
They really thought of everything when they designed that bad boy.
The best way to describe the Warthog is a big cannon with an aircraft connected to it. It has 2 engines in case one is shot up.