Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!ginosko!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!psuvax1!rutgers!att!cbnews!military From: gahooten@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Greg A. Hooten) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: A-10 Thunderbolt -- Who /really/ flys them? Message-ID: <10138@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 12 Oct 89 03:18:39 GMT References: <10085@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: NASA - Ames Research Center Lines: 32 Approved: military@att.att.com From: gahooten@ames.arc.nasa.gov (Greg A. Hooten) In article <10085@cbnews.ATT.COM> shafer@drynix (Mary Shafer) writes: > > >From: Mary Shafer >The attack pilot community is also _very_ fond of the Kevlar bathtub ^^^^^^ >that they sit in in the A-10. The A-16 will be very lightly armored, >on the theory that they'll be in and out so quick that no one will >shoot at them. (Yeah, right. :-) ) I was under the impression that the bathtub was not kevlar, but titanium. This creates a very impressive defense, but is undermined somewhat by the approved tactics of the mission. Though many are pop up firing runs, I have been told that many runs are flow from behind a hill, and as they emerge from behind the hill, the plane rolls inverted to pull negative g's into the firing run. This is "better" than pulling positive g's that pull you out of the seat as you come over the hill and drop. But, it expses the canopy to fire rather than the tub, and if a round penetrates the canopy, it will stay inside the tub until it is spent. Could make swiss cheese. > >-- >Mary Shafer shafer@elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov ames!elxsi.dfrf.nasa.gov!shafer Greg Hooten