Author Topic: My memories of the A-10 Warthog  (Read 6949 times)

Offline bonneyman

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My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« on: July 01, 2021, 05:05:36 PM »
Just saw this new category thread. Thought I might share some of my memories from working on the Warthog. But I tend to talk too much so I'll leave it up to you guys if you want me to write down my reminiscences of those long ago days. Honestly I never thought back then that the plane would still be flying, but since it's still with us 40 years later perhaps someone might be interested.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2021, 05:07:56 PM by bonneyman »

Offline jabberwoki

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Re: My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« Reply #1 on: July 01, 2021, 05:13:03 PM »
Did you fly one?
Is the need enough? Or does the want suffice?

Offline bonneyman

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Re: My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« Reply #2 on: July 01, 2021, 05:15:57 PM »
Did you fly one?

No, I was a mechanic, and got stationed at a base that flew the A-10. So that's what I trained on.
Is this thread only for pilots?

Offline DeadNutz

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Re: My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« Reply #3 on: July 01, 2021, 05:20:04 PM »
It's not just for pilots but for everybody. Post away George as I had no idea you worked on Warthogs.

Offline Rusty

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Re: My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« Reply #4 on: July 01, 2021, 05:48:05 PM »
Go for it. I for one would be very interested.

"Those wars are unjust which are undertaken without provocation.
 For only a war waged for revenge or defense can be just"

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Offline bonneyman

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Re: My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« Reply #5 on: July 01, 2021, 05:54:39 PM »
OK, I'll try and keep it interesting.

The A-10 was born out of the dismal experience of ground support during the Vietnam War. Alot of study was put into a plane that was specifically designed for close air support of ground troops. High speed and air to air combat were not really considerations. Survivability, load carrying capacity, and accurate delivery were key. In fact, the weapons systems were created to do the job, and the plane designers built the aircraft around  the weapons. Since the primary battlefield was to be eastern Europe to defend against the USSR's overwhelming advantage in tanks, a special gun had to be created to destroy them. The typical aircraft gun at the time was the 20mm. The shells were not powerful enough to penetrate the tank armor, so a larger, more powerful round had to be developed. The CAS (close air support) plane would get a 30mm (1.25") gun.
Two company's put forth designs out that were flown against each other - IIRC it was Northrup A-9 and the Fairchild Republic A-10. The A-10 design proved much more capable, and was chosen for production. That started in 1975, with the first birds being delivered in 1976. Production ended in 1983 after about 750 planes were built.

Davis-Monthan AFB in Arizona was the main training base, with Myrtle beach AB in South Carolina was the first active flying base. They got the earliest batches of planes. As I recall a hurricane went through the area in the 80's, and the Myrtle beach was so damaged they decided to close the base down rather than repair it. All the planes got sent to us in Arizona. All I remember is how grody and rusted those birds were - the salt sea air and obvious lack of care was woefully apparent!

The GAU-8 gatling gun is the main attraction of the Warthog. Capable of firing 4200 rounds a minute (on high speed) it could obliterate any tank. The armor piercing shells were made of depleted uranium, very dense and turning into a fireball inside the tank after the friction of penetrating the armor sets it off. Development of the rounds and gun was tough. The early projectiles had a smoky burning powder, and the gun put out so much smoke that they found in early tests the engines would get starved for air. Plus the pilots couldn't see anything! So cleaner propellants were developed. Also, the recoil from the gun was so strong (I heard) the planes had to be flying at least 300 MHP and descending or the plane would slow down enough to stall. Typically now most bursts of the gun are kept to a few seconds at most to prevent this. And it wasn't a problem - just one of the shells hitting the tank does the job!

The second main weapon is the AGM (air to ground) 65 missile. Using a visual camera system, the pilot can "see" what the camera in the missile sees and locks it onto a target. Once fired, the missile will follow the target. Even if the tank is cruising at 60MPH it'll still get toasted!
« Last Edit: July 01, 2021, 06:28:10 PM by bonneyman »

Offline bonneyman

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Re: My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« Reply #6 on: July 01, 2021, 06:19:31 PM »
I was a weapons mechanic on the A-10. Bombs, rockets, missiles, and the massive machine gun in the nose. There were 4 categories of weapons mechanics: weapons loading, gun repair shop, electronics repair, and EOD. I was a weapons loader, part of a 3 man crew that loaded all ordnance on the aircraft. I drove the the specialized "forklift" vehicle known as a "jammer". I'd drive up to the trailer behind the plane that the bomb yard had put all the bombs on, lift off the bombs one at a time, and drive around to raise it into position under the wing so the other 2 guys could attach it. I also was in charge of setting and installing the fuses, and was up on top of the ammo trailer helping the #2 man prep the belt of ammo to be fed into the plane.
Some vids showing what I did:

Most of the time we were in training. The "bombs" we loaded were inert (i.e. concrete). They had the shape, weight, and falling characteristics of real 500 pound bombs (so pilots could realistically train). Once in a while we would load "live" 500 pounders. Thinking back I don't recall treating them any different than the fake bombs I always worked with. the fact that if I inserted the fuse wrong could have blasted me into a million pieces didn't enter my mind. It was a job and I did it. All the safeties were in, so, no big deal. We rotated among the load crews to do EOR (End of runway) duty. Takeoff end we had to pull all the safeties right before the plane took off and do a final check. Landing end had us re-insert the safety pins on any munitions they hadn't dropped. If a safety pin wouldn't go in all the way we had to tell the pilots take it to the "hot gun" area and wait of EOD to come out. they weren't very happy about this, as they would then have to wait for the bomb squad to come out and safety the bomb or whatever before they could go home.

We had very few accidents in my squadron. One experience I remember is we had a plane come back with the "gun malfunction" light on. The safety pin went in, so, the EOR crew sent the plane back to the flightline. The pilot said he heard a loud "thud" or "clunk" and then the light came on. So my crew went out to drop the bottom panels and see what we could see. After removing the probably 50 screws holding the bottom panel up, as we lowered it all sorts of bits and pieces fell out. Broken pieces of metal, black powder, pieces of 30mm brass cases, live 30mm projectiles! All of this crap rolling down the front of my shirt. I was stunned, and found myself standing in a pile of debris - explosive debris! We quickly pulled off the aircraft and called EOD. Just one of the damaged shells goes off, it could hit the fuel tank and cause and explosion in the plane - and it was parked 30-40 feet away from the next plane, all 30 or so of the planes in rows!
Come to find out the chain link system that transported the shells from the ammo drum to the gun ad broken a link. being hydraulic powered the gun didn't slow down or jam - it just kept right on running full tilt. The following cartridges and chain just got jammed into the moving parts and got crunched. The pilot heard a "thud" alright - he's lucky the thing didn't explode right under his butt!
« Last Edit: July 01, 2021, 07:30:44 PM by bonneyman »

Offline jabberwoki

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Re: My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« Reply #7 on: July 01, 2021, 06:41:57 PM »
I wasn't qualifying you B man i was just interested in what you`d done.
Great write up.
Is the need enough? Or does the want suffice?

Offline bonneyman

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Re: My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« Reply #8 on: July 01, 2021, 06:43:59 PM »
More on the gun. It had to be centered in the airframe, as the aforementioned recoil would seriously affect the stability of the plane if it wasn't centered. If you ever get to see an A-10 at an airshow, walk to the front and look at the nose. You'll see the front landing wheel is left of the gun - which is centered.

The ammo drum held 1150 rounds, and the gun had two firing rates. Lo was 2100 rounds per minute, high was 4200 rounds per minute. After firing the empty brass casings were returned to the drum to be reloaded. (It was a cost savings). Actually they needed the weight. The A-10 was built around the gun, quite literally. In fact, the plane couldn't fly without the gun. The weight distribution wouldn't allow it. In fact, whenever we removed the gun from the plane for maintenance or repair we had to install a tail jack under the rear to keep it from flopping back on it's arse! It was so finely balanced that if the plane was going to be flown somewhere and it wasn't required to be loaded with ammo we had to install/remove ballast in the nose to balance it out.

The gun has 7 barrels, so - at 4200 rounds per minute - it's spinning at 600 revolutions per minute to fire that many. That's 10 revolutions per second! (Even on low speed that's 5 revolutions per second).  Having 7 barrels spreads out the wear and allows of some cooling between firings, but in anyone's books that's a blur! I think the barrels lasted 25,000 rounds before getting out of spec. Can't remember - that was the gun shops job. Luckily we didn't have to lube the gun. Whew!

Here's the front of the gun from the air museum bird, and a 30mm shell I turned into a static display. The local swap meets occasionally get surplus from the base, and I was lucky enough to snag a brass casing and - two years later - a steel projectile.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2021, 06:53:21 PM by bonneyman »

Offline bonneyman

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Re: My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« Reply #9 on: July 01, 2021, 06:51:11 PM »
I wasn't qualifying you B man i was just interested in what you`d done.
Great write up.

No prob. I was APU certified, so have some "cockpit" time under my belt.

At the time very few aircraft in the US inventory could start themselves. Multimillion dollar aircraft - on emergency standby, no less - couldn't start themselves. The A-10 could. It had a APU (auxillary power unit) in the back end that the pilot could start, and use the air and electrical output to start the planes engines and take-off by himself if needed. Made for a great plane in the middle of the forest or desert in a bare essentials country.

Anyways I took the class and got APU certified, because some of the weapons work we did required electrical and hydraulic power. I'd sit in the cockpit and start 'er up and the other guys would plug in their testers to the different pylons and check for proper voltage and signals and such. The one crew I was on all 3 of us were APU certified, so, we'd take turns sitting in the cockpit while the other two worked! Was nice in the summer, as you could turn on the A/C while your teammates were sweating their butts off!

Offline jabberwoki

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Re: My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« Reply #10 on: July 01, 2021, 07:45:49 PM »
Have you seen the specs on the new updated version?
Is the need enough? Or does the want suffice?

Offline john k

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Re: My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« Reply #11 on: July 01, 2021, 09:13:18 PM »
I was Army, but got to see and hear the gatling fire when some A-10s made use of the impact zone.  I was in a safe area, at least 1.5 miles miles away.  I can only descibe the sound like this,  imagine a Waring blender, 1,000lb. size,  filled with steel balls,  on Puree for 3 seconds at a time.   Guys around me stepped back when the noise hit us, we could already see the planes, a most intimidating sound.  Thanks for your memories.

Offline bonneyman

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Re: My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« Reply #12 on: July 01, 2021, 09:55:21 PM »
Have you seen the specs on the new updated version?

No, I just read about it last week. More of an announcement really.

Offline DeadNutz

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Re: My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« Reply #13 on: July 01, 2021, 09:58:55 PM »
Thanks for posting that great stuff George and keep it coming as you think of it.

Offline bonneyman

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Re: My memories of the A-10 Warthog
« Reply #14 on: July 01, 2021, 09:59:10 PM »
I was Army, but got to see and hear the gatling fire when some A-10s made use of the impact zone.  I was in a safe area, at least 1.5 miles miles away.  I can only descibe the sound like this,  imagine a Waring blender, 1,000lb. size,  filled with steel balls,  on Puree for 3 seconds at a time.   Guys around me stepped back when the noise hit us, we could already see the planes, a most intimidating sound.  Thanks for your memories.

You are welcome, John.
As it turned out, the A-10's provided the deterrence needed against the Soviets so they never tried attacking Europe. And they have proven themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan, just an updated paint job. I've seen strike films of Warthogs pounding mountain hideouts with the gun. Arabs knew to keep their heads down. The 30mm AP round was designed to penetrate any known armor and reinforced concrete up to 12 inches thick. No telling what the new rounds can do.

They were/are also deployed in South Korea, and there is a base in Alaska that hosts them. Don't ask me why. I can't see any ground threat in Alaska, unless the Russian try ferrying across the Bering Strait. As I recall those birds had all sorts of problems, the cold just doesn't play well with them. Don't know if they ever fixed the issues, either.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2021, 10:16:30 PM by bonneyman »