Someone said, “Let’s put it in an airplane.”
Someone else said, “Better still, let’s build an airplane around it.”

So they did , and they were the Fairchild – Republic Airplane people , they had done such a good job with an airplane they developed back in WWII – called the P-47 Thunderbolt, the decided to call this new plane the A10 Thunderbolt , they made so it was very good at flying low and slow and shooting things with that fabulous gun , but since it did fly low and slow they made it bulletproof  , the enemy could actually shoot at it with from a pistol to a 23mm soviet cannon, and it just keeps on flying and shooting

When they got through developing it, it look like this

Its not sleek and sexy like an F18 or the stealthy Raptors and such , but I think its such a great airplane because it does what it does better than any other plane in the world – it kills tanks

Not only tanks , as Sadam Hussein’s boys found out to their horrow , but armored personell carriers , radar stations , locomotives , bunkers , fuel depots.. just about anything the bad guys thought was bulletproof  turned out to be easy pickings for this beast

See those engines , one of them alone will fly this puppy , the pilot sits in a very thick titanium allow “ bathtub” – that’s typical of the design

They were smart enough to make every part the same whether it was mounted on the left or right side of the plane , including landing gear. Because the engines are mounted so high (away from ground debris) and the landing gear uses such low pressure tires, it can easily operate from a damaged airport , interstate highway or plowed field.

Everything is redundant , they have 2 of almost everything , sometimes they 3 of particular items , for instance flight controls and even a double hydraulic system , there is also a set of manual flight controls

Captain Kim Campbell sustained this damage over Baghdad and flew for another hour before returning to base , but back to the guns – Its so hard to grasp just how powerful it is

This is the closest comparison that shows you just what this cartridge is all about , the guy is holding a .50 Browning machine gun round and the 20mm cannon round which has been around for a long time – see how big the 30mm

Down at the bottom are the .50 BMG and 20×102 Vulcan the fellow was holding. At the bottom right is the bad boywe’re discussing. Let’s get some perspective here: The .223 Rem (M16 rifle round) is fast. It shoots a 55 or so grain bullet at about 3300 feet/sec, give or take. It’s the fastest of all those rounds shown (except one).

When you move up to the …30 caliber rounds, the bullets jump up in weight to 160-200 grains.
Speeds run from about 2600 to 3000 fps or so..

The .338 Lapua is the king of the sniper rifles these days and shoots a 350 grain bullet at 2800 fps or so. They kill bad guys at over a mile with that one.

The .50 BMG is really big. Mike Beasley has one on his desk. Everyone who picks it up thinks it’s some sortof fake, unless they know big ammo. It’s reallyhuge with a bullet that weighs 750 grains andgoes as fast the Lapua.

I don’thave data on the Vulcan, but hang on to your hat..The bullet for the 30×173 Avenge has an aluminum jacket around a spent uraniumcore and weighs 6560 grains (yes, over 100 times as heavy as the M16 bullet, and flies throughthe air at 3500 fps(which is faster than the M16 as
well).

The gun shoots at a rate of 4200 rounds per minute. Yes, four thousand.Pilots typically shoot either one- or two-second burst which set loose 70 to 150 rounds. Thesystem is optimized for shooting at 4,000 feet.

Now to get a really good comparison on how large the actual gun really is

Pakistan Army

Camp Dodge in Iowa. A gift from our grandfathers. . .

The aircraft seen in the attached video is a helo from a deployed helicopter squadron (HS-14) based at the U..S. Naval Air Facility in Atsugi , Japan …… The carrier is the USS Kitty Hawk, based in Yokosuka , Japan .. The ‘Hawk’ was underway for CQ (Airwing Carrier Qualifications) in the Sea of Japan during the week of March 22, 2008. The chopper seen on the ship’s bow, tied down at helo Spot 2, is a Sikorsky SH-60F from HS-14.

The pilot had just landed on deck, and his helo was tied down on Spot 2 because the seas were too rough to move it to a safer place.. Fortunately, it only suffered some minor damage (blade crutch support socket) and a lot of salt water intrusion from the sea. While viewing the video, please remember that the carrier’s flight deck is approximately 60′ above the ship’s normal water line.

DON

‘What do you feel……when you shoot a Terrorist?’

The Marine shrugged and replied, “A Slight Recoil.”

Most of these don’t need description.
Doing the toughest job there is and still retaining a sense of humor shows how great these guys and gals are.