The A-10
The first production A-10A Warthog was delivered to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (AFB), Arizona, in October 1975. It was designed specifically for the close air support mission and had the ability to combine large military loads, long loiter and wide combat radius, which proved to be vital assets to the United States and its allies during Operation Desert Storm and Operation Noble Anvil.
In the Gulf War, A-10s had a mission capable rate of 95.7%, flew 8,100 sorties and launched 90% of the AGM-65 Maverick missiles.
Today the upgraded A-10Cs have Night Vision Imaging Systems (NVIS), goggle compatible single-seat cockpits forward of their wings, Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems, and a large bubble canopy which provides pilots all-around vision. Avionics equipment includes communications, inertial navigation and GPS, fire control and weapons delivery systems, target penetration aids and night vision goggles. Their weapons delivery systems include heads-up displays that indicate airspeed, altitude, dive angle, navigation information and weapons aiming references; and a low altitude safety and targeting enhancement system (LASTE) which provides constantly computing impact point freefall ordnance delivery.
What is something that almost nobody knows about the mighty A-10 Warthog?
A-10 Warthog nose gear and gun
‘Two things,’ says Damien Leimbach, former Avionics Technician at US Air Force (2001-2007), on Quora.
‘#1) The gun is not in the middle of the plane.
‘The GAU-8 does not fire in the 12 or 6 o’clock position.
‘From the pilots’ perspective it fires when the barrel is at the 3 o’clock. For this reason, the gun is slightly offset (to the pilots left) so that the firing barrel (and the resulting recoil force) is down the centerline axis of the plane.
‘The gun produces so much force when firing that even that few inches of offset (if the gun were centered in the plane) would produce a yaw moment on the plane that would pull the gun off target when firing even short bursts. Instead of an impact cluster where you are aiming, the rounds would spray out into a horizontal line of impacts.
‘Additionally, because the gun is mounted beneath the center of gravity, if fired, it would tip the nose down, again pulling the gun off target. To compensate for this the gun is angled downward by 2 degrees from the axis of level flight. This downward cant is built into the targeting computers calculations.
‘#2) The nose gear is not in the middle of the plane.
‘Because the gun is in the way, the nose wheel is mounted off center to fit it inside.’
Photo credit: U.S. Air Force
