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Maybe a bit niche, but someone on here must share my enthusiasm for my favourite plane ever....
[url= http://www.fox2.co.uk/viewtopic.php?p=294297&sid=3d0b8aa115de8b0feb33f6756da76351 ]a10s[/url]
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That high pitched whine takes me back to growing up near The Wash, when they'd come over town at 500ft and on a clear day you'd hear the canon runs.
Brought up near the Lincolnshire RAF bases. Remember being in the car going up the A15 and the A10s used to do practice runs on the traffic. 😯
I grew up on the wash too, A10s and F111s would fly over the beach on the way to the bombing ranges.
My older brother did his work experience at the RAF Holbeach ranges. The F111s couldn't hit sh*t, apparently, whereas the a10s...
I am not big into military hardware, but the A10 is different. I was 12 years old when watching footage of them during the first Gulf War. That is one of the things Iremember from that war. It has a distinctive appearance and I would not want to get in the way of the canon.
& here's me, 20mins from Leeming (& my BIL lives in Leeming Village) & I never even knew! Bugga!
I loved the ugliness of it - that and the effort to deliver survivability when under ground fire.
My old boss is ex-Raf and he spoke to some A-10 pilots, that cannon is apparently like a laser beam, even if you're not on the target you can just wiggle the controls and "walk" it over the thing you want to disintegrate (whilst keeping an eye on your airspeed as it does slow you down apparently). Bloody awesome bit of kit, shame the USAF keep trying to pension it off in favour of the F-35 POS.
One of my favourite planes ever! I grew up on the flight path to one of the bigger East Anglian bases and these were always flying overhead along with F-4's and F-111's then later the F-16 and F-15s and the venerable Hercules (another favourite).
If anyone remembers the first ever Take-Off magazine there was a massive feature on these aircraft written by the pilots and the way they were flown at low-level, upside down over hill tops and under power lines.
That ugly design hid some very clever thinking and an aircraft that could reportedly take a phenomenal beating.
I loved the ugliness of it - that and the effort to deliver survivability when under ground fire.
Yeah, which is why the military told the pilots to fly at 10,000ft during the Gulf war, meaning the pilots couldn't see jack shit and thus shot up British convoys, despite their having Union flags on the roof!
US losses would be bad for moral back home... 🙄
I used to holiday down at Llanstephan in Wales, (where else), and I could sit up on the seaward-facing curtain wall and watch A-10's on straffing runs on the firing ranges the other side of the river around Pembrey Forest; sounded like some Ripping sheets of corrugated steel in half!
Oh, and those are stupendous photos! Bloody hell, I'd be so thrilled to get a set of photos like those! Amazing!
I loved the ugliness of it - that and the effort to deliver survivability when under ground fire.
Never tested against any force with decent ground based AD IIRC
Also good at friendly fire if piloted by cowboys
Yeah, which is why the military told the pilots to fly at 10,000ft during the Gulf war, meaning the pilots couldn't see jack shit and thus shot up British convoys, despite their having Union flags on the roof!
US losses would be bad for moral back home
They weren't at 10000 ft when they did their passes over the Warriors of 3RRF
I've got a Tamiya 1/48th scale one still to make.
^^^ boys will be boys 🙂
Great planes, thanks for the pics
I was plastering a house in Scruton last week and they kept flying over. The noise they make is unique. I can only imagine the terror they instill on a battlefield
Takes me back - our middle school in the Midlands was a popular waypoint and I have memories of all sorts popping over, Harriers, Tornados, Jaguars and of course Hogs. Thought it was just normal then but I miss it now.
big_n_daft - MemberAlso good at friendly fire if piloted by cowboys
Mate of mine- "You just kind of take it for granted that sooner or later the yanks are going to shoot you up. All you can do is hope it's not an A10 that does it" 😆
It is a good plane for asymmetric conflicts due to good endurance and high payload. I would not like to fly one against an enemy with modern air defence though.
I think that the A10 is a better option than attack helicopters such as the Apache. I guess air forces do not like armies have "proper" aircraft hence the heli's.
Great photos though. I wish I had a camera on me when out for a ride in The Cotswolds during Gulf War 2. I saw a B52 with lots of ordnance hanging off it (just taken off from Fairford I guess). It scared the crap out of me just looking at it.
Mate of mine- "You just kind of take it for granted that sooner or later the yanks are going to shoot you up. All you can do is hope it's not an A10 that does it"
Probably ex RHF it was the composite company that got hit
It is a good plane for asymmetric conflicts due to good endurance and high payload. I would not like to fly one against an enemy with modern air defence though.
Integrated defence would force them low and then HVM systems would make mincemeat of them, even the old Soviet ZSU23 would give them a headache
I think that the A10 is a better option than attack helicopters such as the Apache. I guess air forces do not like armies have "proper" aircraft hence the heli's.
Apache more capable in a hostile AD environment, pop up AH is very difficult to counter. A10 is suitable only when light AD in opposition the single pilot means that they can't operate as a platform as an Apache could
whilst keeping an eye on your airspeed as it does slow you down apparently
If you could fire for long enough (without the gun overheating or running out of ammo) you could stall the aircraft.
Easy tigers! I wasn't making a case for it's effectiveness on the modern battlefield - nor how disciplined pilots were in its use. Just saying I liked the level of redundancy built into the aircraft.
f anyone remembers the first ever Take-Off magazine there was a massive feature on these aircraft written by the pilots and the way they were flown at low-level, upside down over hill tops and under power lines.
I do!
I lived on the edge of Salisbury Plain when I was a kid. Amazing things to see flying at such a low level when they were still allowed to. Our housecwas on the side of a hill, lower than that sometimes.
They have been play war over the ranges near us all weekend. Noisy bloody things.
They are super cool. like others, I have childhood memories of them over Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire.
I also watched one so low that the draft nealy capsized boats on Loch Ken - he skimmed the old viaduct and power line, then dropped down below tree level...and around the corner had to climb due to the line of Wayfarers and Lasers....the colleague at the viaduct in canoes said she thought for a moment it was going to try and slot under the bridge (impossible - the wings wouldn't fit and it's only 20' or so off the loch).
Utterly bonkers flying - the same day there were Tornado's and Harriers around as well, all day, but none quite so mad..
The same week we watched F15's chase Tornado's over Merrick - the Tornado's were maybe a hundred feet or so above us, upside down going over a saddle and turning a corner at the same time. It's theonly time I have seen a navigator wave back at me....! The F15's went up, turned and then seemed to chase down the Tornado through speed...
Pondo... My middle school was in the Midlands... Belvoir High school in Bottesford to be exact. Seemed to be a turning point for all sorts of aircraft in the 90s. Maybe it was just big skys and a child like interest in planes, but we used to see some right hardware back then.
Once I was up on T'moors on a day off having a lovely pootle and noticed that a pair of A10's were coming fairly low over me (hard to not notice really). After the 2nd or 3rd pass I decided to play hard to get and started changing direction/ stopping suddenly (I'm no soft target!) This went on for about 20 mins before they headed off, but I got dipped wings as a thanks!
One crashed into the side of the valley here back in the 90's (I was living abroad at the time!). Military came up and cleared up every scrap they could find. If you know where to look there are still shells and stuff to be found though.
http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/507046/details/fairchild-a10-thunderbolt-80-0231
growing up on the westcoast of Denmark right between massive Army practise area and Airbase it was a daily airahow during the 80s.
Huge ammount of A-10 / F-4 /F-16 flying past.
Island south of where i lived had airforce shooting range and could hear the A-10 Guns on calm days.
The bigger area just north of us, is right next to a summer house area as well so you would literally have people on holiday and 400m to the side behind some sand dunes you would have tanks firing.
Also used for live bombing runs which have caught some tourist out, thinking they had gone on holiday in a war zone.
No pics yet?
Chuffing love the A-10. Great aircraft and probably the last out and out ground attack plane they'll make.
Thanks for sharing the links...
I live about 10 miles from RAF Leeming, saw a couple of these fly over about an hour ago.
Amazing looking machines, not seen any since I lived in East Anglia in the 80s/90s
big_n_daft - MemberProbably ex RHF it was the composite company that got hit
Irony personified- he was royal artillery in gw1. So his regiment actually got friendly-fired by british tankers rather than US planes. But I think they only really take offence when it's the yanks.
Just read that brought some Little Birds with them too in that C17. They've been playing out over Catterick ranges all morning. Good day to be off work....
I saw an A-10 with massive dents in its nose at the RIAT air show last year. It was like someone had gone at it with a big hammer. Apparently it happened because the A-10 had met a tanker for refuelling and the tanker's refuelling boom operator had missed the A-10's refuelling socket. I guess if there's one plane you'd want to be in while it was being beaten up by a tanker's boom, it'd be the A-10.
Fantastic planes. 😀
Just saying I liked the level of redundancy built into the aircraft.
A bit like all the B52s currently flying were built in the 50s. Technically should have been pensioned off years ago, but still useful.
Up in the flat lands on the Northant's Warwickshire border you'd be out in the middle of a 100acre field ploughing and being stalked by a pair of these. The farmer I worked for somehow got a photograph from an A10 with me sat on my MF595 hauling a Dowdswell 3 furrow plough up and down - a poor substitute for whatever the Warsaw Pact tank de jour was and would leave me with wonky furrows.
Surprising number of us from East Anglia on here.
High six!
*chokes on beer* 😆
Funniest post on here ever, time to shut stw down
Of all the people on here to make laugh at the moment, I'm really glad it was you, Houns.
😀
Thanks....
That post and the sibling fighting thread has made me laugh properly for the first time in months
High six!
As a former East Anglian (I've gone south and soft) that made me chuckle.
Surprising number of us from East Anglia on here.
Indeed. Just had an Osprey fly over.
Mostly Apaches in my part of EA. If you get a chance, go to the Cold War museum at Ben****ers. There's often an American there who used to work on the A-10s and will tell you some amazing stories. They had 6 forward bases in Germany which were stockpiled with barrels and ammo. They'd fly over there once the balloon went up, all the ground crew and spares in transports and fight from the forward bases. There were no plans for a return trip!