The Insane Engineering of the A-10 Warthog

The Fairchild Republic A-10 Lightning-Boll or simply The Hog is one of the most iconic aircraft of the US Air Force, an aircraft developed in the midst of the Cold War with a specific type of war in mind if the War Cold turned hot. The area was destined to become a battlefield. A 50 kilometer corridor of valley lowlands called the Fulda Gap, where any invading troops would be funneled on their march from East Germany to West Germany. It was the shortest route to France, Frankfurt and the strategically important Rhine River in the event of war. If this corridor were breached, it would be a vital region to protect and each side of the Fulda Gap was defended by armored divisions to deal with this threat surrounding the US developed an operational doctrine called air-ground battle and the A-10 was developed as a vital component of this strategy: a low-flying tank killer that would work closely with troops on the ground to break up enemy formations on the front lines while flying high.

The bombers harassed the supply lines in the rear The A-10 was an aircraft designed specifically for the close air support role Close air support is exactly as close to friendly forces as it is to enemy forces that it requires an aircraft to be capable of absorbing a large amount of damage when attacked and to be incredibly precise in where its weapons are to avoid friendly fire. An aircraft with this feature needs some unique qualities; it needs to be available at any time on an ever-evolving battlefield. Troops could need support without warning and because of this, the aircraft must be nearby and ready to fly, this means working from advanced bases that do not necessarily have all the infrastructure and equipment that other aircraft need to operate, their survivability must be in class flying so close to the ground.

This will result in all the men with guns shooting at the plane, as a result the plane must be able to deal with small arms, machine guns, anti-aircraft guns and even missiles. A tense and frequent limp back to its base would cause damage so severe that another plane would have been shot down with parts of its wings torn off, with an engine removed and the hydraulic system running and, with this, the plane must be simple and cheap to manufacture. , the Air Force made it clear from the beginning in a cost battle. Compared to performance, cost would be prioritized in an all-out war with the Soviets.

Quantity and ease of manufacture would be a huge factor, like the Sherman and T-34 tanks that were so influential in World War II, a future war between the Soviets. and the US was expected to win whoever could outperform in manufacturing and maintaining their equipment. This aircraft was intended to be a cheap and tough warhorse. It needed to be manufactured with off-the-shelf parts so that maintenance teams could easily swap parts. To repair the damage quickly and at low cost, the contractors who bid on the manufacturing contract had to consider all of these factors and designed the entire aircraft around the main urn that was chosen before the design process began, the General Electric GAU-8. /a, a weapon whose sound is so recognizable that it has become a meme the weapon occupies a significant portion of the internal volume of the plane at almost 6 meters long and fits comfortably under the pilot the largest part of the weapon is the drum of ammunition typically containing 1,150 30-millimeter rounds The bullets are delivered to the 7 rotating barrels along a linkless firing system that also pushes the cases into the ammunition drum after firing to prevent expanded projectiles from damaging the plane.

The belt system and rotating cam firing system of the cannons are driven by a hydraulic system. engine which is driven by two independent hydraulic systems On board there are two separate hydraulic systems to ensure redundant sight in operation and both operate the gun The left and right hydraulic systems are pressurized by two identical engine-driven pumps in the left engine and Right if an engine is lost or one of the hydraulic lines breaks, the controls powered by those hydraulic systems stopped working; However, the aircraft has been designed to allow it to continue flying on a single hydraulic system, as both elevators, ailerons, and a rudder have hydraulic power after stall. of any of the hydraulic lines that ensure powered control of pitch and yaw, even after the loss of a single hydraulic system, if both are lost the aircraft can switch to a manual reversing flight control system where the controls They can be operated without electrical assistance, which is difficult to say. the minimum, but it can allow the pilot to land the plane safely or at least allow it to enter safe airspace to expel this type of redundancy can be found in each component of the a10 to increase survivability the landing gear is retracted by the LES system only, but can be extended with both and, in the event that neither system is available, the wing-mounted landing gear does not actually fully retract into the pharynx, allowing the aircraft to land with the landing gear retracted with only moderate damage to the The aircraft protecting control mechanisms through redundancy is only one component of increasing survivability.

The fuel tanks are self-sealing at the bottom and filled with foam to prevent explosions. The A-10, like all aircraft, can fly with significant armor covering every part of the plane. plane, so they only protect the most vital component of the plane. the stick operator, also known as the pilot, who sits inside a titanium tub that is reportedly capable of absorbing direct hits from armor-piercing bullets of up to 23 millimeters. the canopy is also made of ballistic glass capable of taking hits from small arms, but this is not the type of aircraft that flies upside down over the battlefield, it is more for anti-aircraft fire shrapnel and missiles, the A-10 also carries more straw and flares.

Like any legacy US air fighter, chaff is radar-reflective material that confuses radar-controlled missiles, while flares confuse heat-seeking missiles with four dispensers located in the landing gear pods and another four in the outer wingtips for a total of sixteen on both wings that can be activated automatically by radar and laser detection systems in the nose and wingtips of the aircraft or simply triggered manually by the pilot. One of the most striking features of the A-10 is the strange engine placement and tail configuration, and this was also a design feature. to thwart enemies with heat-seeking missiles, the engines and tail were arranged this way to mask the infrared signature of the plane's hot exhaust which could be used to pin the plane via IR missiles to the ground, the tail would be more visible.

Home to a World War II bomber that was designed to be stable Stability was an important part of the taut design Large vertical stabilizers helped keep the plane on target while it fired its incredibly powerful gun The gun is mounted directly on the line center of the plane to minimize the effect of the recoil that pushes the plane off the target, the recoil force at 40 4.5 kilonewtons is so powerful that it effectively halves the plane's thrust, as each of the General Electric engines T-34 eight-ended produces only 41 kilonewtons of thrust, but the aircraft fires in such short bursts, usually one to two seconds, that the pilot need not worry.

Leaving the high engines mounted behind the wings also reduced the amount of dirt and dust that can enter the engines from the forward operating base runways, which may only be dirt runways, many design decisions were made to allow that the plane operates from remote airfields like this one. Smaller military aircraft like this generally do not have auxiliary power units, which are small secondary engines that large aircraft such as airliners have, as you can see. The exhaust of these small engines hidden in the tails of airliners, these engines allow the plane to start its main engines without external help and help run functions such as electricity generation and hydraulic fluid pumps, but it is a weight necessary for most small aircraft and generally use some weight.

Another way of spinning the engine sometimes makes the aircraft dependent on ground equipment that the A-10 cannot depend on, so an AP was installed between the two canned engines. You can see the APU exhaust just below the nacelle. Here, some of the most interesting design challenges arose from the sheer power of the plane's cannon: the cannon spit out so much burned propellant that they actually lost one of the first models in 1978 after the cannon's exhaust gases ignited and starved of oxygen to the engines. To deal with this some design changes were made, first a small gas scoop was placed under the barrels to suck out some of that exhaust, the chemical mixture of the round propellant was changed to increase the flash from current levels, this to in turn caused secondary problems as the new chemical mixture caused residue to build up on the cab windows and a hood cleaner was needed which simply sprayed the washer fluid onto the hood and the slipstream did the rest of the work.

Circuit was also added to force the engine ignition system to fire continuously while the gun trigger was being pulled so that, should the flame go out, the engine could immediately rekindle its flame. The Gau-8 Avenger is a monstrous machine designed to wreak havoc on Soviet tanks attempting to break through Allied lines. To do this, they need a lot of weight. Armor-piercing projectiles, the projectiles are really massive, 30 millimeters, and throughout these projectiles are projectiles made of aluminum with a depleted uranium core. Uranium is incredibly dense, nineteen point one g/cm^3, in comparison, lead is eleven point three grams per centimeter.

Cubed and iron is 7.9, this density gives the bullet more kinetic energy for armor piercing. Depleted uranium also removes material in a way that self-sharpens the projector, while tungsten, which is slightly denser than uranium, tends to mushroom and spread out upon impact. Currently, 700,000 metric tons of depleted uranium stored as uranium hexafluoride in huge storage cylinders across the United States cost uranium enrichment facilities a huge amount to maintain. They are simply delighted when someone takes it out of their hands and shoots it at high speed towards a country thousands of miles away. It is a cheap and freely available resource and has the perfect material properties for armor piercing, but the effectiveness of using depleted uranium is obviously not good.

Many war-torn regions have blamed its use for the high cancer cases suffered by the A-10. The constant threat of retirement detractors have insisted from the beginning that the plane is not necessary, first it was the F-16 that should take over its job and now it is the F-35 and both sides of the argument have valid points: the F-16. and the a10 can transport similar amounts of artillery to the battlefield if necessary. Both have 11 hardpoints where the load capacity exceeds 7.2 tons, but placing heavy equipment on their wings negates the f-16's biggest advantage: its maneuverability and ability to conserve kinetic energy in dogfights.

It was designed to be a multi-role fighter while the A-10 was designed for one job and one job just to get dirty and take a few hits like Rocky while modern aircraft like the F-35 were designed to be more like Muhammad Ali swinging, weaving illusory strikes and moving out of enemy range before they can react, the two aircraft were designed in completely different eras with a completely different military doctrine in mind and trying to compare the two without acknowledging what nonsense the f-35 is. It is designed to carry a small payload of weapons in its internal weapons bay while stealth is a high priority, but can carry as much as the F-16 when air superiority is established.

It is a multirole fighter designed for the modern battlefield. The A-10 found a role in wars such as Iraq and Afghanistan, where the threat level and sophistication of enemy weaponry was relatively low, such as in the expected battles in the Gap Binder in the 1980s. The A-10 persists today because he excels in his role as a close person. The air support vehicle and its low operating cost compared to other military aircraft have kept it competitive, giving usallows us to be at the forefront of today's military operations. He planned for the infantry to be able to see coming on the horizon as Gandalf coming to the helms to lift the siege. has become an iconic aircraft among soldiers on the ground, a bond has formed between us and the infantry it protects, but just as the A-10 was created in preparation for an anticipated next-generation war, the F-35 created with future wars in mind. where the threat environment will be so dense that simply being able to take a hit will not save us the nature of close air support has continually evolved over the last century in world war ii tactical air forces were created specifically to provide close air support to The landing of troops in Normandy at the D-Day range for these fighters was a major tactical issue and within 24 hours of the first men landing in Normandy three new emergency landing strips had been created off the beaches that would allow the allies to extend their fighter-bombers. reach and prevent a fierce German counterattack from overwhelming the small foothold the Allies managed to gain in Normandy.

I explore these vital logistical challenges in a future episode of D-Day Logistics coming out next month. built primarily to extend the range of Allied air support as ground troops advanced; However, as the front line advanced, many became supply depots, emergency evacuation posts and heavy bomber airfields, others were simply abandoned and allowed to return to farmland over time, there are hidden traces. With these remains scattered throughout Normandy, you can learn more about them and get access to all the logistics of the D-Day series by signing up to the Curiosity Channel for just $19.99 all year long. Here you can watch the hidden traces documentary about modern archaeological excavations.

You'll discover the remains of the 8th decade battlefield and get free access to the nebula, home of D-Day logistics, and many more original series from some of YouTube's best educational shows. Creators like Tom Scott reviewed the production in 1999 for a full year of access to Curiosity Stream with thousands of award-winning documentaries and access to Nebula is a fantastic price and will help educational creators continue creating their content without the limitations of the YouTube algorithm. As always, thanks for watching and thanks to all my Patreon followers. If you want to see more from me, the links to my Instagram subreddit, Twitter, and my Discord server are below.