This shit needs to fly

Safari_Ken · 9 months

In case anyone needs a better idea of the scale of the gun, this picture should clear things up.

jillyboooty · 9 months

0mgrzx · 9 months

This is the Heavy's wet dream!

boolean_union · 9 months

So, I feel like I'm investigating some sort of Tom Clancy-esque worldwide arms conspiracy... Reading about the Warthog on Wikipedia. Seems it was developed by Fairchild Republic, wonder what they are up to now... Took over German aircraft manufacturer Dornier in '96, then acquired by German insurer Allianz A.G in conjunction with U.S. investment group Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Inc. Finally purchased by M7 Aerospace in Texas in 2003. Hmm, in 2010, M7 was purchased by the United States subsidiary of the Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems... one of the world's largest defense electronics manufacturers and integrators. As of 2010, over 45% of its stock is owned or controlled by Michael Federmann, a man with a net worth of 1.4 billion dollars...

Subduction · 9 months

You think it looks cool? Try how it sounds:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sALiuWg_I1k

iihatephones · 9 months

We said "This shit needs to walk" so we strapped a Vulcan Raven to it.

quentinp · 9 months

The A10 is a tie with the SR71 for my favorite aircraft.

DocFantastico · 9 months

Upvote for the coolest gun ever. 30mm autocannon firing 3200 rounds a minute? YES PLEASE!

percules · 9 months

Plane and simple, that gun is fucking sweet.

maddiott · 9 months

The flying VW bug sized killing machine.

chronox21 · 9 months

What is even more awesome, that fighter can actually fly with one wing. the A-10 Warthog is a BA muthafucker, or perhaps it the gun.

asainloverfetus · 9 months

Makes me proud to be an American Edit: Yea screw you Pluvo

lawlshane · 9 months

Love me some Warthog.

hippopotacat · 9 months

This gatling gun produces a recoil with the force of 45000 newtons. When the plane is strapped to the gun, it has to be slightly offset so that the recoil doesn't bump the plane off course. That shit cray.

EDIT: Okay good people of reddit, here is what i mean, and if you dont understand the physics behind why the gun is off center, well, i won't explain it for you.

KingRohman · 9 months

"the plane is an ACCESSORY' made me laugh so much I joined reddit so I could upvote this.

Kerfuffly · 9 months

The plane is image is fine and all, but imma gonna tell you about the propeller planes the germans built/used in WW1 when they'd sync the gun and the propeller to shoot through the frickkin propeller...

Me like!

_pulsar · 9 months

Yay death!

USA! USA! USA!

Berkel · 9 months

I like how that somewhere in that building where the gun is sitting there's just a room called "Weapons".

Jay_Santos · 9 months

The whole text reminded me of Cave Johnson

holyerthanthou · 9 months

And lets make it so it can never be shot down...

The_Hero_of_Kvatch · 9 months

Loved the A-10 since I saw them flying up in Michigan when I was 10. Read up on it, and found out how absolutely lethal they were. Hooked.

smacktoward · 9 months

In case you were wondering, "the first guy" in this story was Pierre Sprey.

Secret_Jesus · 9 months

For some price perspective 30mm shells are $65.00 per round. It fires at 3900 rounds per minute.

haxxeh · 9 months

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sALiuWg_I1k ill leave that here

cheesygoatfart · 9 months

awww yeeeahh

irisher · 9 months

There is a Boy Scout summer camp near Whitman airbase where many of these are located. It turns out the layout of the Boy Scout camp was pretty similar to what a enemy encampment might look like (mess hall, barracks) so the military decided to use it to practice attack runs (with no ammo) It was always extremely cool to just be walking around then hear a rumble and see an A-10 bearing down on you in a "strafing run" at barely above treetop level.

richard_photograph · 9 months

this is the best description ive ever heard of this cannon...if you have been upclose for one of these beasts in action you will agree...greatest gun ever made also my favorite jet ever, i used to go to a gunnery range in south jersey and watch guys strafe targets in A-10's some of my best memories as a kid...they used to let us park on the dirt "runway" and they would do low passes about 30 feet above the ground.

poli_ticks · 9 months

This shit is not funny. It's literally true that the A-10 was designed around the GAU-8. And a good thing too. Finest CAS aircraft ever built.

Thank you, John Boyd. Thank you, Fighter Mafia.

XxMatt212xX · 9 months

Fun Fact: If you take the GAU-8 out of the A-10, you have to put the tail on a stand because it tips over backwords from lack of weight in the front.

madplayshd · 9 months

I still only used the missiles in that operation flashpoint mission.

Wise2304 · 9 months

The Heavy approves of big gun.

professor-membrane · 9 months

its like the creation of the earth... put there so i could put its weight on my shoulders!

OneWarning13 · 9 months

That and the B-2 are by far my favourite planes, examples of when the designers just went batshit crazy and designed something so awesome and over-the-top that it actually worked.

isit34 · 9 months

http://i.imgur.com/ux1jV.jpg My dad at the Cleveland air show a couple years ago.

kruegermiester · 9 months

I used to work on this beast when I was stationed at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, AZ. I worked Avionics Systems and I would have to say, for how old this aircraft is, it is one of the most technological planes in the whole fleet. That gun in the picture is at DM and its hard to believe that it is the size of a VW Bug. Even shooting that thing 5-6 miles away, it sounds like someone is cutting down a tree with a chainsaw about 10 feet away from you. In my own opinion, it is no doubt the coolest, and most easiest plane to work on. I miss them, mainly because I am working on the F-15E in England. This is a crappy jet, for working on at least.

ChazHollywood · 9 months

BVVVVVVVVVVVVVT

SupaSupra · 9 months

No joke about a 30MM Gatling, makes me wish I didn't have such shitty eyesight I could fly it. I loled.

leighshakespeare · 9 months

Fly, fly like the wind

alexlm85 · 9 months

Motherfucking A-10

stroyer1 · 9 months

The Internet has shown me too many gunshot wounds for me to truly enjoy a nice gun anymore. The big I giveth...

whereisthesun · 9 months

fifteen minutes ago I watched a show about this gun on national geographic.

FiniusTWhiskers · 9 months

My friend said he heard one fire when he was in afghanistan, he also said it was terrifying. A rumor I heard too, if gun is fired longer than 9 seconds it will stall the plane. Just a rumor though.

girlscantfight · 9 months

that captioning sucked

TremendousPete · 9 months

They literally have to build the plane around the gun, and the gun typically shoots depleted uranium rounds. It's terrifying. And it shoots 4200 rounds per minute.

Lord-Snarkington · 9 months

The A-10 is by far my my favorite airplane for this reason.

Arvald · 9 months

Take a gun that can rip a tank to shreds, build a plane around it that can have half a wind shot off and part of its tail gone, and still fly back to base, then, strap as many missiles, rockets and bombs to it as physics will allow, and then send that god damn thing out to hunt armored vehicles.

fuck yeah.

majortom1981 · 9 months

I live on long island where fairchild and grumman Both were. My father worked on this aircraft at both companies (also on the f-14 at grumman). Its an awesome aircraft and I think i have the patches for this aircraft somewhere at my fathers house. Grumman used to have family days where you could sit in the cockpit of the aircraft.

once_was_human · 9 months

Even after (accidently) being on the receiving end of this gun, the A-10 is still my favorite aircraft. They saved our asses a few times in Afghanistan.

MisterMetal · 9 months

One of the most interesting facts about the gun that I heard on the military channel, is after firing for 3+ seconds, the recoil is equal to the force of the engines. The plane cant keep firing and fly so the gun is on burst fire only.

Askelkana · 9 months

When I was a pre-teen my father worked on a bombing range in South Wales. Occasionally I'd get to go along and sit in the control tower and watch the planes perform their strafing runs. One time a couple of A10s came by and let loose with their cannons. I still remember the noise. Wonderful stuff!

greenghostbud · 9 months

Looks more like puma to me.

Gr3atdane · 9 months

Even tho its a killing machine, you have to appreicate how great the A-10 is, its 30 years old and theres no talk of a replacement because it just does what it does perfectly.

wadad17 · 9 months

I love it! Yet, in a wide open desert, its sounds like a fart. But, a valley in between some mountains, with the sounds echoing all over, its sounds like Dragon!

Got to see one these at a local air show. I stared at the front of the plane for 30 minutes, just imaging what its like to get shot at with that gun. They had a bullet on display, and it was about as tall as a 2 liter bottle and as thick as a 1 liter. The damn things dont even have to hit you! Just hit within a couple feet and you'll be hurting. But you should of seen these things fly.

Gonna try to explain how the strafing run works, atleast from what i saw, so sorry to any service men/women if i screw this up. They go up, flip that thing around faster than I thought a plane could ever turn, line up, slow down, and then they would fire. Sadly they didnt, but its what they do when they get over the target that got the hairs on my arms raising. They jerk the plane in some weird kinda motion, where its still going down at the same angle, yet turning up at the same time. And when it accelerates out of that motion, it makes a weird sound where it sounds like its slapping the earth. Not to mention this thing was flying VERY low during the entire show so it was awesome.

Also got to see a B-2 stealth bomber. IT was like a silent, black triangle flying low over head. Then like 6 seconds later, one of the loudest sounds I've ever head. I LOVE military jets. I have no interest in joining the air force, and i dont even know that much about them(Clearly). But they are just the coolest piece of aviation I've ever seen.

My hat's off to the men and women who get the chance to fly those things. Looks EPIC!

alixxr · 9 months

I approve of this mindset.

xblindguardianx · 9 months

it actually just shoots different sizes of cashews...

moogmania · 9 months

The force of the gun firing is about equal to the thrust generated by the engines at 50% thrust. The inertia of the plane in motion negates the effect, but it's still crazy to think about.

Also the gun is offset so that the barrel in the firing position (on the far right) is always lined up with the centerline of the plane. This is also why the nose landing gear is off to one side.

Source: An awesome episode of Modern Marvels on the A-10

Obskulum · 9 months

People's minds get blown really easily these days.

Tebasaki · 9 months

So mich bad grammar, but good story.

erkapathy · 9 months

It can shoot folks real gud.

Dovakhim · 9 months

fun fact: the plane actually slows down significantly when the gun is firing

10over6 · 9 months

I just did a little math. For all the work of building, loading, fueling, and flying that plane, the pilot has 18 seconds worth of ammunition.

Alexanderh86 · 9 months

That thing gives me a big ol' patriotic boner.

Andykay8 · 9 months

Come you masters of war

You that build the big guns

You that build the death planes

You that build all the bombs

You that hide behind walls

You that hide behind desks

I just want you to know

I can see through your masks.

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