Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!ginosko!usc!rutgers!att!cbnews!military
From: demodmb@iitmax.iit.edu (Dean M. Bleess)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: A-10 "Warthog" Thunderbolt II
Keywords: A-10,Thunderbolt,Warthog,antitank
Message-ID: <10492@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 23 Oct 89 23:08:30 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: Illinois Institute of Technology
Lines: 36
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: demodmb@iitmax.iit.edu (Dean M. Bleess)


The A-10 carries up to 1,350 rounds of HEX (High Explosive) or AP (Armor
piercing) shells, each around the size of a bottle of cream.  The gun is
usually used in a 2 second burst followed by a minute of cooling to avoid
gun heating-fouling problems. 

As far a the aircraft itself, most of the parts are interchangable left to
right, e.g. the empennage, control surfaces, and maybe some landing gear
parts.  The cockpit -except for the canopy is designed to resist up to 23 mm
shells, and the gear mains project from the fairings when retracted to help
avoid damage if it becomes necessary to land gear up.  The engines are mounted
where they are to help block much of the heat signature of the engines.

The most common attack profile for A-10's would be to send in 3+ aircraft to
use the terrain to mask the direction of their passes over the targets, and
to avoid a prediction of where the next would come from, the point being that
by the time anyone can find them they are gone and the next is making a pass
from a different quarter.

Back to the gun, it takes about 77 hp to run and is 21 feet long NOT including
the drum for the ammunition, at 4200 rounds/min it can empty the drum in about
20 seconds of firing time.  I heard that the gun is VARIABLE from 2100 rnd/min
to 4200 rnd/min, but I think it is probably only selectable between the two.


================
Dean M. Bleess   Aerospace Engineering
Illinois Institute of Technology  -Chicago
"If I'm wrong -- tell me !  That's why I'm going to school"

p.s.
-- Cessna 1xx series => The best stealth buy anywhere !! --