This Date in Aviation History: May 9 - May 12

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 05/12/2020 at 12:35 • Filed to: wingspan, Planelopnik, TDIAH

11

34

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Welcome to This Date in Aviation History , getting of you caught up on milestones, important historical events and people in aviation from May 9 through May 12.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(US Air Force)

May 10, 1972 – The first flight of the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II. On the night of August 20, 1968, half a million !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! soldiers and thousands of tanks and armored vehicles !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and took control of the country in a single night, putting an end to the political reforms known as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . That watershed event in the Cold War confirmed to the West that the massed might of Soviet armor was a serious and perhaps imminent threat, one that land power alone was not prepared to counter. It would take a combination of land and air power to stop the hordes of Soviets tanks that might invade Western Europe but, at that time, NATO had no dedicated, tank-busting aircraft in its inventory.

The Northrop YA-9, top, and Fairchild Republic YA-10, bottom. The YA-10 was the winner in the competition between the two aircraft. (US Air Force)

Designers found ample inspiration for how such an aircraft might look from the experiences of the Second World War. One of the first tank busters, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , was a regular fighter armed with a pair of 40mm cannons which proved devastatingly effective against German tanks. For their part, the Germans developed the heavily armed though not very maneuverable !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the first aircraft specifically designed for close air support. But the move to jet fighters after the war saw the rise of multi-role fighters, ones that could both intercept enemy aircraft and attack ground targets. However, these aircraft were somewhat of a compromise, and not necessarily the best solution for one scenario or the other. By the Vietnam War, the only dedicated close air support (CAS) aircraft in the Air Force inventory was the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a remarkably capable aircraft, but one that traces its origins back to the Second World War. The NATO allies realized that they needed a purpose-built CAS aircraft, one that could fly low and slow over the battlefield, be rugged enough to sustain battle damage and bring its pilot home alive, and have sufficient firepower to knock out a tank in a single pass.

The General Electric GAU-8 30mm Gatling gun can fire over 4,000 rounds per minute. Here it is shown with a VW Beetle for scale. (US Air Force)

In 1966, the US Air Force created the Attack Experimental (A-X) program office to develop a suitable aircraft, and by 1970 a specific request for proposals was made to the defense industry. Though the new CAS aircraft would be jet-powered, the Air Force emphasized accuracy and firepower over speed. It would fly at no more than 460 mph, but it would also be capable of carrying 16,000 pounds of external stores (by comparison, a loaded !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! carried 20,000 pounds of bombs). Most importantly, the new aircraft would be developed around the massive !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! 30mm cannon, a seven-barrel Gatling gun that could fire over 4,000 rounds of depleted uranium bullets per minute. Compared to other guns in use in CAS aircraft at the time, the Avenger had twice the range, took half the time to reach the target and could deliver three times the mass of projectiles to the target.

(US Air Force)

The Air Force selected two finalists, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and the Fairchild Republic YA-10. The YA-9 was a relatively traditional aircraft with fuselage-mounted engines and a shoulder wing, roughly comparable to the Russian !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The YA-10, however, was a radical departure from traditional design, with a low, straight wing that provided excellent low-speed maneuverability, engines mounted in pods above the fuselage to protect them from ground fire, and twin tail fins for redundancy. Twelve hundred pounds of titanium armor formed a tub that protected the pilot and fragile avionics. The massive cannon was mounted slightly off-center so that the firing barrel was directly on the aircraft’s centerline. Otherwise, the gun’s recoil would force the nose of the aircraft off the target. The gun’s position beneath the cockpit also helped prevent the ingestion of gun gases into the engines.

Following a fly-off between the two competing designs, the Air Force selected the YA-10 as the winner in April 1973 and took delivery of the first production A-10s in March 1976. At first, some Air Force pilots balked at the idea of flying low and slow over the battlefield, accustomed as they were to dogfights at high altitude. But in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of 1990-1991, the Thunderbolt II, more commonly referred to as the Warthog, showed how it was truly worthy of its WWII !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! namesake. During the war, A-10s destroyed more than 900 Iraqi tanks, 2,000 military vehicles, and 1,200 artillery pieces. A-10 pilots even shot down two enemy helicopters. The Thunderbolt II maintained a stellar 95.7 percent mission-capability rate over 8,100 sorties. The Air Force was so impressed that they dropped any ideas of replacing the twenty-year-old aircraft at the time.

An A-10 Thunderbolt II from the 74th Fighter Squadron approaches a tanker to take on fuel over Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. (US Air Force)

However, there are no guarantees in Washington DC, as Congress and the Air Force wrangled over how best to allocate limited funds. Despite continued excellent service in the low-intensity conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria, and with no true dedicated successor, the Air Force made plans to retire the A-10 to free up money for production of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , a multi-role stealth aircraft that has yet to prove that it can live up to its WWII !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! heritage, or effectively perform the CAS role that is so brilliantly carried out by the A-10. In 2017, the US Congress stepped in and appropriated the money to keep the A-10 flying, and the 2019 budget included money to replace the wings on existing Warthogs. At least the for near future, the A-10 will continue to fly.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Author unknown)

May 12, 1936 – The first flight of the Messerschmitt Bf 110 Zerstörer . The single-seat fighter had matured significantly during the Golden Age of Aviation in the 1930s, but a lack of adequate range was becoming the Achilles heel of fighters of the pre-WWII era. In an effort to make a warplane with greater range, designers began to consider twin-engine aircraft that could offer longer operational range along with the added benefit of greater firepower. When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, he already had his sights set on expanding German territory through his ongoing policy of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . But to do that, he first had to rebuild Germany’s ground and air forces that had been dismantled by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! which ended WWI. In 1935, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! was appointed as the head of the fledgling !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!   and became a vocal champion for the concept of the Kampfzerstörer (battle destroyer), a heavily armed aircraft that, theoretically at least, could smash through enemy fighter screens while also providing protection for larger bombers. Focke-Wulf, Henschel, Arado and Messerschmitt submitted prototypes for the new fighter-bomber, and even though designer !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! omitted the internal bomb bay in order to increase range and speed, his design for the Bf 110 Zerstörer ( Destroyer ) was selected as the winner.

The Bf 110 wasn’t the most maneuverable aircraft (the Bf 110 is often erroneously referred to as the Me 110; “Bf” comes from Bayerische Flugzeugwerke , where Messerschmitt was chief designer), but its high speed allowed it to outpace the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! fighter in service at the time. At first, the Zerstörer was produced in three basic variants: the B-1, which was armed with four 7.92 mm !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! machine guns and two 20mm !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! cannons; the B-2 reconnaissance version, which replaced the two cannons with cameras while keeping the machine guns; and the B-3, which served as a trainer, with the cannons removed to make way for more radio equipment. Though the Bf 110 was fast for its time, and had good range, Luftwaffe planners knew that its service days were numbered, given the rapid pace of aircraft development. Even as Bf 110s were taking part in the invasion of Poland at the outbreak of WWII in 1939, its successor, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , was ready for flight. However, the Me 210 suffered from serious teething problems, particularly with its aerodynamics, and was never produced in significant numbers. The Bf 110 was forced to soldier on throughout the war, where its weaknesses quickly became apparent.

A Bf 110 flying over the the cliffs of Dover on the English coast. (San Diego Air and Space Museum)

Though the Zerstörer served effectively in the Polish, Norwegian and French campaigns early in the war, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! showed that the Bf 110 was by no means a fighter, and it suffered bitterly as its pilots tried to protect German bombers attacking England. It was entirely unable to dogfight with the more agile !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and its single defensive machine gun proved to be ineffective at fending off attackers. These weaknesses were mitigated by tactics such as diving on unsuspecting fighters from high altitude, but the Kampfzerstörer concept ultimately proved effective only on paper. On August 15, 1940, nearly 30 Bf 110s were lost in a single day of combat, and 23 more were lost over the next two days. But even with its impending obsolescence as a fighter, the Bf 110's days were not over.

A Messerschmitt Bf 110G night fighter with antennas for the Lichtenstein airborne interception (AI) radar. (Imperial War Museum)

While it was eventually withdrawn from daylight fighting, the advent of the aerial !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! meant that the Bf 11o could now be turned into a potent night fighter, and it became the primary weapon of the German Nachtjagdgeschwader (night fighter wing) against British nighttime bombing raids. Some night-fighting 110s were armed with upward firing twin cannons, nicknamed !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Since the British bombers had no ventral turret, the 110s flew underneath the unsuspecting bombers and fired directly upward. In one instance, a Luftwaffe pilot dispatched four RAF bombers in just 30 minutes in this way. Though the Luftwaffe was ultimately unable to stop all the British bombers during their nighttime missions, radar-equipped Bf 110s exacted a heavy toll, with Germany’s top night fighter ace Major !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! claiming 121 victories with Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 and 4. In all, over 6,000 Bf 110s were produced, and while it never lived up to its original billing, the Zerstörer still played a vital role in the German Luftwaffe throughout the war in every theater of operations.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Short Takeoff

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

May 10, 2012 – The death of Evelyn Bryan Johnson. Johnson was born in Corbin, Kentucky on November 4, 1909 and began her flying career with the US Army Air Corps in 1944. By the time she quit flying at the age of 96 she had logged 57,635 flying hours, the international record for the greatest number of flying hours logged. Johnson served as a colonel in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and as a flight instructor, garnering the distinction of being the oldest instructor pilot in the world and training more pilots and giving more FAA exams than any other instructor. On July 21, 2007, Johnson was inducted into the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , joining !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and other famous flyers.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

May 10, 1991 – The first flight of the Bombardier CRJ100. The CRJ traces it roots back to 1989 with the beginning of the Canadair Regional Jet program which sought to develop a medium-range jet airliner to seat up to 52 passengers. The design was originally developed as a stretched variant of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! business jet and, following the CRJ100's entry into service, it was quickly developed into the CRJ200 ER and LR, each with increased range. The CRJ100, along with its larger CRJ200 variant, have proven very popular with smaller airlines, as well as some large airlines who use the regional jet to serve smaller airports. A total of 935 aircraft of both variants have been produced, and the airliner remains in service.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Tim Shaffer)

May 10, 1986 – The U. S. Navy adopts the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet as the official airplane of the Blue Angels. The Blue Angels were founded in 1931, and one of the hallmarks of the flight demonstration squadron has always been that they fly the same combat aircraft currently in fleet service. The Blues began with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! following WWII, then transitioned to jets in 1949 flying the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Staying with Grumman, the Blues transitioned to the swept wing !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and then !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! before adopting the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1969. Next came the more economical !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and finally the Blue Angels’ first fourth generation fighter, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . The Blues are scheduled to transition to the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! by the end of 2021.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(US Air Force)

May 10, 1978 – The first flight of the Dassault Mirage 2000. Based on the delta wing !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the Mirage 2000 was developed in the 1970s as a lightweight fighter to compete with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! for the export market. Since the Mirage 2000 was based on an existing aircraft, the prototype was ready for its first flight in just 27 months. It displayed superb handling for a delta-wing aircraft, impressing spectators when it was unveiled at the 1978 !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and demonstrating that it was indeed a viable competitor to its American challenger. The Mirage 2000 entered service in November 1982, and over 600 examples were produced.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Deutsches Bundesarchiv)

May 10, 1941 – Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland. Hess served as an infantryman and pilot in WWI, then rose to power with Adolf Hitler in the 1930s, eventually being named Deputy Führer in 1933. With the outbreak of WWII, Hess feared that Germany faced a ruinous war on two fronts, and he took it upon himself to broker peace with Great Britain. Taking off from Germany in a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Hess flew to Scotland and hoped to make contact with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , 14th Duke of Hamilton, whom Hess mistakenly believed was opposed to the war in Europe. Chased by RAF fighters, Hess bailed out and was captured. He spent the remainder of the war as a British captive, and never met with British Prime Minister !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Though he was tried at Nuremberg after the war, Hess was not found guilty of war crimes; however, he spent the rest of his life in Spandau Prison, and died there in 1987 at the age of 93. The wreckage of his plane now resides in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Author unknown)

May 10, 1913 – The first flight of the Sikorsky Russky Vityaz . While !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! is best known in the West for his pioneering work with helicopters, he first made a name for himself in Russia with the construction of large civilian and military aircraft before emigrating to the US in 1919. The Russky Vityaz was powered by four !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! four-cylinder engines and had a top speed of 56 mph. It could carry up to seven passengers, and the fuselage was large enough that the passengers were able to move about the cabin during flight. Despite the promise of the Russky Vityaz , the sole aircraft was severely damaged when the engine of another airplane fell on it and crushed it. Rather than repair the aircraft, Sikorsky moved on to develop the even larger !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(NASA)

May 11, 2009 – The launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-125. When the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (HST) was launched into Earth orbit in 1990, it was a landmark event that put a powerful telescope beyond the blurring effects of Earth’s atmosphere. Unfortunately, the HST had some significant flaws that hindered its capabilities, so NASA embarked on a series of five !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! flown by the Space Shuttle that captured the telescope in orbit and effected repairs. STS-125 was the fifth and final Hubble servicing mission (named Servicing Mission 4, as there was a mission 3A and 3B). The crew of Atlantis installed a new data-handling unit, repaired the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , replaced the batteries, and also installed the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , repairs that finally rendered the HST fully operational. The crew also installed the Soft Capture Rendezvous System which will allow future manned or robotic missions to safely dispose of Hubble when its mission is complete.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(Author unknown)

May 11, 1934 – The first flight of the Douglas DC-2, a twin-engine airliner that was developed by the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! to compete with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . When rival airline !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (later United Airlines) monopolized the purchase of the 247, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (later TWA) sought their own all-metal monoplane airliner. Douglas responded with the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which was quickly developed into the DC-2 with more powerful engines and room for 14 passengers. The DC-2 proved successful, but was ultimately overshadowed by its successor, the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , which became one of the greatest aircraft in history in both military and civilian service. Just under 200 DC-2s were built and operated by airlines and militaries around the world.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

(US Navy)

May 11, 1932 – The airship USS Akron takes members of the ground crew into the air in a landing accident. During an attempted landing at Camp Kearny in San Diego, a sudden gust of wind caused the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! (ZRS-4) to rise suddenly, and the mooring lines were cut to avoid a potentially catastrophic nose stand. As Akron rapidly ascended, four inexperienced groundcrew members clung to a mooring lines and were taken aloft. One quickly let go and fell roughly 15 feet, suffering a broken arm, while two others tried to hang on but ultimately fell to their death. The fourth, Seaman Apprentice Bud Cowart, managed to secure himself to the line and was eventually hoisted aboard the airship after an hour spent dangling beneath the airship. !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! captured the accident, along with the death of the two crewmen. The incident served as the inspiration for the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! television program starring !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! as the red-caped superhero.

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

Connecting Flights

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

If you enjoy these Aviation History posts, please let me know in the comments. You can find more posts about aviation history, aviators, and aviation oddities at !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!

KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time > ttyymmnn 05/12/2020 at 12:36

6

I’m a simple man- I see the A-10 in the thumbnail - I click “Like”

For Sweden > ttyymmnn 05/12/2020 at 12:38

1

This is the best A-10 replacement plan

KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time > For Sweden 05/12/2020 at 12:54

5

The Ghost of Oppo > ttyymmnn 05/12/2020 at 12:57

0

Going off the BF 110, any time I read about the concept of night fighting in WW2 it blows my mind. Do you know of any good youtube videos that cover the topic in detail?

ttyymmnn > The Ghost of Oppo 05/12/2020 at 13:04

2

I do not. But I might start with Wings of the Luftwaffe, back with Wings was a good show. I’m sure they did an episode about the 110. 

user314 > ttyymmnn 05/12/2020 at 13:12

2

Wings of the Luftwaffe, Bf 110 “The Destroyer”

XJDano > ttyymmnn 05/12/2020 at 13:15

0

That news reel of the guys dangling was rough to watch. Which got me thinking... those air ships were massive, and the mordern day equivalent would be a blimp, yeah? But then I couldn’t think of the last time I had seen a blimp. Possibly when the PGA tour came to StL a few years back, and before then?? I do recall seeing them as a kid because our house was between Chesterfield Airport and the baseball stadium down town. I guess those are kind of a thing of the past now a days and I don’t know if my kids will ever see one. 

ttyymmnn > user314 05/12/2020 at 13:17

0

Like I said, back when the show was good. 

PatBateman > KingT- 60% of the time, it works every time 05/12/2020 at 13:18

4

A mighty penis.  On the BOne.

TheRealBicycleBuck > For Sweden 05/12/2020 at 13:18

0

That’s an interesting idea, but I wonder how accurate it could be considering the landing speed is somewhere around 150 kts. The loiter speed should be somewhere between 150 and 200 kts. Accurately laying down firepower while moving at those speeds and at flight elevation might be somewhat tricky.

ttyymmnn > XJDano 05/12/2020 at 13:24

0

There are still a few blimps around, and the Navy, up until a few years ago, was still toying with the idea of bringing them back . Since civilian blimps  are mostly used these days for V coverage n owadays, you can do the same job with a (relatively) cheap drone for significantly less money.

WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI > ttyymmnn 05/12/2020 at 13:28

2

“a seven-barrel Gatling gun that could fire over 4,000 rounds of depleted uranium bullets per minute.”

InFierority Complex > ttyymmnn 05/12/2020 at 13:32

2

Who doesn’t love the A-10? I mean, except the Air Force that it.

Horrible 2012 phone video a friend in my platoon took of an A-10 strafing run. They did a couple more but that’s about the gist of it. I’ve got even worse quality of Kiowas doing some runs too. Will probably delete the youtube video in a couple hours or so.

ttyymmnn > InFierority Complex 05/12/2020 at 13:40

0

BBBRRRRAAAAPPPP!!!1!1! Also, that’s spiffy camouflage, except for this .

Snuze: Needs another Swede > ttyymmnn 05/12/2020 at 13:56

1

Thank you for the Hs-129 reference, but d on’t forget the B-25G & H series, though!

Any time someone straps an absurdly large gun to a plane, I’m interested.  

ttyymmnn > Snuze: Needs another Swede 05/12/2020 at 13:58

2

You mean like this ?

user314 > WasGTIthenGTOthenNOVAnowbacktoGTI 05/12/2020 at 14:15

2

Similar to the XM12/SUU-16/A, this pod featured a self-powered variant of the M61A1, designated XM130 (may have been standardized as the M130) by the US Army and GAU-4/A by the US Air Force. This modification allowed its carriage on aircraft that could not meet the speed requirement of the previous unit, and reduced drag by removing the ram-air turbine requirement. This pod was popular for use on the F-4C and F-4D Phantom II aircraft, as well as British FG.1 and FGR.2 Phantom IIs. The pod still has a weight restriction, weighing more than its predecessor at 1,730 lb (780 kg) loaded with 1,200 rounds of ammunition, and still has the fixed rate of 6,000 rpm.

Now, there’s no evidence that the A-10 ever carried those gun pods (or the GBU-8 o r 15), but still.

There’s also this:

Developed under Project Pave Claw, the GPU-5/A was designed to adapt the power of the A-10 Thunderbolt II and its GAU-8/A gun to smaller aircraft. The resulting weapon used a smaller version of the GAU-8/A, designated the GAU-13/A, with only four barrels. Podded, the system weights 1,900 lb (860 kg) loaded with 353 rounds of 30 mm ammunition in two helical layers surrounding the gun (for reduction of overall size). The pod is completely self-contained with a rate of fire of 3,000 rpm.

InFierority Complex > ttyymmnn 05/12/2020 at 14:19

1

The Italians tried mounting a 102mm in a P.108 heavy bomber. Th ey only built 1 for testing IIRC

ttyymmnn > InFierority Complex 05/12/2020 at 14:20

0

Probably made the plane go backwards. 

Snuze: Needs another Swede > ttyymmnn 05/12/2020 at 14:21

1

Yes, exactly like that.  

ttyymmnn > Snuze: Needs another Swede 05/12/2020 at 14:23

0

Snuze: Needs another Swede > user314 05/12/2020 at 14:26

1

An A-10 can carry 16,000 lbs of external stores, which equals... lets see... 8 GPU-5/A gun pods. 8. Imagine an A-10 with 9 cannons. That’s 28,000 round per minute of hot metal death raining from the sky. Beautiful. 

sn4cktimes > ttyymmnn 05/12/2020 at 14:30

1

These posts are so great! my favourite plane has always been the A-10. I’ve just loved the premise of building a giant gun, and then wrapping a plane around it.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > ttyymmnn 05/12/2020 at 14:30

0

That’s pretty amazing. I imagine it takes a lot of ingenuity to lay an aircraft out and balance something like a giant 75mm cannon.  I also wonder what the recoil does to the airframe. 

ttyymmnn > sn4cktimes 05/12/2020 at 14:38

0

Thanks! If you like planes wrapped around a gun, scroll down to the comment about the Beechcraft Grizzly. 

ttyymmnn > Snuze: Needs another Swede 05/12/2020 at 14:40

0

I have no idea!

sn4cktimes > ttyymmnn 05/12/2020 at 14:57

1

Hahaha. I can see why it never went into production. I can’t imagine the airframe lasting too long firing that bore. Would’ve been a hell of a shudder while flying I’m sure.

Snuze: Needs another Swede > InFierority Complex 05/12/2020 at 16:46

0

Wooooo! Get some!!!

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > TheRealBicycleBuck 05/12/2020 at 22:03

1

And the cost, and the vulnerability of unde rslung engines to ground fire,

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > XJDano 05/12/2020 at 22:09

0

hood has a blimp that flies around southern new england, and most of the red sox games. If you ever drive 4 95 at nighte near mansfield   all of a sudden you’ll reach the airport and surprise, giant blimp lit up on side of the field. 

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Snuze: Needs another Swede 05/12/2020 at 22:13

1

what would you attach suppoorts to?

Snuze: Needs another Swede > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 05/13/2020 at 08:34

1

Those metal hoops. In shipbuilding we call them “frames” and like a ship these have a T-profile. They provide crush/buckling resistance and maintain the hull shape. They are also the main attachment point for loads (the floor of this aircraft is most likely attached to the frames).

On an aircraft the skin is thin due to weight, hence the longitudinal ribs (no idea what those are called). Those provide longitudinal stiffness to help reduce bending/flex. The skin itself forms a quasi-cylinder which resists torsion. In shipbuilding we don’t really use the ribs, or at least I haven’t seen them, because the skin is generally very thick and steel - though most of my experience is with large combatant craft (submarines, destroyers, etc.)

The thing with recoil is it’s a very sharp impulse. Aircraft are made of aluminum, and one of the great concerns with aluminum is cyclic fatigue failure. Steel has a “ lower fatigue limit” , where as long as you stay below a certain load it will last forever. Aluminum does not have this, so every time you apply stress to aluminum, it gets a little bit weaker (in some proportion to the applied load) and over time micro-cracks start to form, and eventually big cracks, and eventually it fails.

A cannon that big is almost certainly long action and has several recoil mitigation techniques, but that still doesn’t stop recoil from being transferred to the airframe.  

gmporschenut also a fan of hondas > Snuze: Needs another Swede 05/13/2020 at 09:09

0

(engineer myself) I was trying to be humo rous. I envision the gun frame extending 1/2 way down the aircraft to dissi pate that impact.

I’m surprised they didn’t try a p39 37mm or bofors 40.

or better the 57mm with auto reloading in the mosquito

Snuze: Needs another Swede > gmporschenut also a fan of hondas 05/13/2020 at 09:48

0

Sorry, I have a hard time remembering who does what around here.

The problem is the 37mm and Bofors 40 wouldn’t penetrate later German armor. The 75mm gun is derived from the M4 Sherman’s gun which, when first entered in combat in 1942, was merely adequate. In 1943, when the Panther and Tiger tanks began to appear, the gun was quickly eclipsed. The US scrambled to upgun the Sherman and came out with a newer, high velocity 76.2mm and the Brit’s created “Firefly Shermans” with 17 pounders (also a 76.2mm gun). Again, these brought the tanks mostly to parity, though they still struggled against Tiger’s heavy front armor.

What they needed was to fly the 90mm gun from the T-26!