I see that Michael Yon has posted an online report from Afghanistan. He's talking about the A-10 Warthog and the intrepid reservists that fly them.
I had thought that the A-10 had been retired from active service, but I'm gratified to see that they're still on the front lines, supporting our troops. The A-10 is probably the best jet-powered ground support fighter ever designed. It's a magnificent aircraft and frankly, the Air Force never liked them much. They fly low and slow. I've seen A-10s come back from missions with mud on the undercarriage. The Air Force tried to call it the Thunderbolt II, but that name quickly became bullshit. The fliers and soldiers nicknamed it the Warthog, and that name stuck.
It's still the best ground-support aircraft ever invented.
Bonus question. What was the official designation of the helicopter dubbed the UH-1? The military damned sure didn't want to call it Huey.
6 comments:
Iroquois... hope I spelled it right!
Iroquois... :-) And the A-10 can flat tear up a tank! Got to see one shoot up a T-72. 1 second burst, ventilated tank!!!
The reason the Generals didn't like the A-10 was that it was procured outside of the graft-laden procurement channels the USAF usually bought aircraft through.
It was the last "designed on a cocktail napkin" aircraft, and it's designers lucked out in the competition when no one else did a purpose-built design, just rehashed old interceptors.
The aircraft was actually designed AROUND that magnificent GAU-8 30mm rotary cannon. Add excellent armor for the pilot and the engines, and it's a SURVIVABLE airplane despite the low-and-slow.
The A-10 is a titanium bathtub with wings attached to a GAU-8. I was the head intel geek for an A-10 wing for several years, and while the "real" Air Force doesn't like them, for the guys who fly them, and the guys who work on them they are the only serious aircraft in the inventory (well, maybe include the Herks). It may be so slow that it records bird strikes from the rear, and the airspeed indicator may be a sundial, it may travel at half the speed of smell, but you can't break one with a hammer, and anything that it cuts loose on is pretty well toast.
Oh, and the crew dogs can diss it all they want, but non-mudrollers had better be nice!
Back when England Air Force base in Alexandria was going, the A-10s used to fly over these north Louisiana piney woods a lot. My baby sister, slim, blonde, attractive, noticed one day that they did lots of tree-top flying over her house when she was sunbathing on her deck.
The UH-1 and the A-10 are not the only ones to get a name the powers that be didn't like.
The F-4 Phantom was often called the Rhino - due to the second radar dome on the nose looking like a second horn on the animal of the same name
The original P-47 Thunderbolt was called the Jug by pilots and maintenance people. They loved it though.
Some times the truth just won't hide.
Roland Johnson
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