A-10 Thunderbolt II is an American single-seat twin-engine attack aircraft created by Fairchild-Republic. His main specialization was the fight against ground targets, primarily against tanks and other armored vehicles of the enemy. This aircraft is familiar to almost all aviation lovers and has a recognizable and well-remembered appearance. It got its name Thunderbolt II in honor of the famous American fighter-bomber of the Second World War P-47 Thunderbolt.
The A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft was the first US Air Force aircraft specifically designed to provide close air support to ground forces on the battlefield. This is a fairly simple, tenacious and effective jet aircraft. After being adopted by the US Air Force for a long time, the aircraft was treated as an "ugly duckling", which was due to both its limited use and not the most ordinary appearance, for which the aircraft even received the unofficial nickname Warthog - a warthog. The aircraft was criticized for a long time, the American Air Force even thought to get rid of it in favor of the A-16, a modification of the F-16 fighter, but the unexpectedly successful combat use of the A-10 Thunderbolt II during the first Gulf War forever put an end to disputes about further the fate of the stormtrooper.
It was during the Gulf War in 1991 that the combat debut of the A-10 attack aircraft took place. In total, 144 aircraft of this type took part in the operation, they performed a total of 8100 sorties, while losing 7 aircraft (on average, one loss of an attack aircraft fell on 1350 sorties made). To the surprise of many outside observers, the unsightly-looking subsonic aircraft was able to become one of the "heroes" of this war, along with the F-117 stealth strike aircraft and the F-15 fighter. According to the US military, Thunderbolts were able to destroy more than a thousand Iraqi tanks (more than any other US Air Force aircraft), up to two thousand units of other military equipment and 1200 artillery installations of all types.
The history of this machine began at a time when the US Air Force began to suffer significant losses from Soviet air defense installations supplied to Vietnam - small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery and large-caliber machine guns. In such conditions, it became increasingly difficult for them to provide support to ground forces. Imagining what could happen if American aircraft were opposed not by the weak air defense system of the Vietnamese, but by Soviet anti-aircraft gunners or the air defense of the countries of the socialist bloc, the American military got excited about the idea of creating an armored attack aircraft. The stage of design and construction of prototypes was passed relatively quickly and already on May 10, 1972, the first A-10 attack aircraft from Fairchild-Republic took to the skies, just 20 days ahead of its competitor, Northrop A-9.
The aircraft was mass-produced from 1975 to 1984, a total of 715 aircraft were assembled, the cost of one aircraft was $ 18.8 million. The aircraft remains in service with the US Air Force. For 2015, 283 aircraft in the A-10C modification remained in service. The A-10C is an updated model of the attack aircraft, equipped with modern digital equipment, capable of carrying the entire set of high-precision weapons with a laser targeting system. The first A-10C attack aircraft entered service with the US Air Force in 2006.
Stormtrooper design
Structurally, the single-seat attack aircraft A-10 Thunderbolt II is a low-wing aircraft with a trapezoidal wing and two-fin vertical tail. The fuselage of a simple semi-monocoque combat aircraft was made mainly of aluminum alloys, which were distinguished by high corrosion resistance to defoliants (a mixture of defoliants and herbicides made up the infamous Agent Orange), widely used by the Americans in Vietnam. The fuselage of the aircraft is distinguished by a fairly high survivability: it should not have collapsed if two diametrically opposite spars were damaged, as well as two adjacent skin panels.
The low-lying three-spar wing consisted of a rectangular center section, in which the fuel tanks were located, and two trapezoidal consoles. The simplicity of the attack aircraft wing design was achieved by using a large number of straight spars, identical ribs and plating, which was produced by stamping. In places where the skin thickness changes along the wingspan, the designers have provided for the use of straight overlap joints. The wingtips of the A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft were bent down, which increased the cruising range by 8%. The wing itself was distinguished by a large relative curvature and thickness, which provided it with the optimal amount of lift at low flight speeds.
The pilot and critical control systems of the attack aircraft are reliably protected by 1.5-inch titanium armor, which is able to withstand the impact of 37-mm shells. At the same time, the pilot's armored cabin is made in the form of a "bath", assembled on screws from titanium armor plates. The bulletproof glass of the cockpit canopy is able to withstand the hit of a 23-mm projectile from such a SPAAG as "Shilka".
At the ends of the central part of the wing of the aircraft fairings were installed, designed to accommodate the main landing gear, retractable forward. After their retraction, the niches of the fairings of the struts are not covered with flaps, so the wheels of the landing gear protrude slightly outward, which makes the emergency landing of the attack aircraft safer. The tail unit of the aircraft was designed by the designers in such a way that with the loss of one keel or even one of the halves of the A-10 Thunderbolt II stabilizer it could continue its flight.
New and interesting for combat aircraft was the installation of the engines, which were placed in separate nacelles on the sides of the rear fuselage of the attack aircraft. The advantages of this arrangement could be attributed to a decrease in the radar and thermal signature of engines, a decrease in the likelihood of foreign objects from the runway and powder gases entering the air intake when firing from an artillery mount. Also, a similar layout of the power plant made it possible to service the attack aircraft and the suspension of weapons with the engines running and provided convenience in its operation and replacement. In addition, the central part of the fuselage of the A-10 attack aircraft remained free to accommodate fuel tanks near the aircraft's center of gravity, which made it possible to dispense with a fuel pumping system to ensure the necessary alignment of the aircraft.
The advantage of this location was the increase in the survivability of the attack aircraft. Confirmation of this was received in combat conditions. In 1999, from air bases located in Italy, the A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft took part in the NATO military operation against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. As part of this operation, the US military did not recognize a single loss of A-10 attack aircraft. At the same time, on May 2, 1999, one of the attack aircraft of this type made an emergency landing at the Skopje airport (Macedonia). The plane landed on one engine, the second engine was shot clean, and later it was shown on Yugoslav television.
The high maneuverability of the attack aircraft at low altitudes gave the car a good chance of evading missiles and attacks from enemy fighters. Good maneuverability combined with cockpit visibility and a relatively low flight speed allowed the aircraft to hit even relatively small targets from a single approach. An artillery system was fired at targets such as a tank from a height of 100-150 meters from a distance of 1800 meters; unarmored targets could be fired at from a distance of 3000-3600 meters.
The cannon around which the plane was built
In 1970, the US military finally decided on the main artillery caliber for the new attack aircraft. It was decided to use a super-powerful 30-mm seven-barreled GAU-8 / A Avenger cannon from General Electric as an artillery weapon. The muzzle velocity of the shells fired from it is 1067 m / s, and the rate of fire reaches 4000 rounds per minute. After the 75-mm artillery gun that was installed on American aircraft during World War II, the GAU-8 / A became the most powerful aircraft artillery system developed in the United States. When creating it, the designers took into account the successful experience of using the 30-mm DEFA cannon by Israeli combat aircraft against the armored vehicles of the Arabs during the 1967 war.
The 30-mm seven-barreled Gatling air cannon with a rotating barrel block was specially created for the A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft, becoming its hallmark. The GAU-8 / A is one of the most powerful aircraft guns of this caliber in the world. The weight of the gun is 281 kg, the weight of the entire gun mount is 1830 kg (including the ammunition supply system, drum with full ammunition). The diameter of the cartridge box is 86 cm, the length is 182 cm.
During the tests, which were carried out at the Nellis air base, located in the state of Nevada, 24 attacks of the A-10A attack aircraft were made on 15 types of targets, 7 of which were destroyed, and the rest were disabled. The pilots fired from a cannon at a rate of 2100 rds / min and 4200 rds / min at a distance of 1800 meters. It should be noted that these tests were carried out in field conditions. The pilots studied the terrain in detail, the armored vehicles were motionless, the weather was perfect. And, of course, the pilots of the attack aircraft did not face any opposition - neither passive (setting up smoke screens), nor, even more so, fire.
GAU-8 / A next to the car Volkswagen Beetle
The 30-mm GAU-8 / A aircraft cannon is located along the longitudinal axis of the attack aircraft, it is shifted to its left side by 0.3 meters. The gun works on the Gatling principle, has a hydraulic external drive and a linkless ammunition supply system. The used drum-type magazine holds 1350 rounds. The cartridge case of the used cartridges was made not of steel, but of aluminum, which made it possible to increase the ammunition load of the artillery mount by 30% for a given mass. The 30mm rounds have plastic guide belts to help extend the life of the barrels. Initially, the gun's rate of fire could be switched from 2100 to 4200 rounds per minute, but later the maximum rate of fire was limited to 3900 rounds per minute. In practice, the duration of fire from the GAU-8 / A is limited to one- or two-second volleys, this is necessary in order to prevent overheating of the barrels, overexpenditure of projectiles, and also to extend the life of the barrels. The break for cooling the artillery system is about a minute. The service life of the barrel unit is 21 thousand shots. Each firing cycle begins with the spinning of the barrel block from two hydraulic drives, which are powered by the attack aircraft's hydraulic system.
The linkless projectile feeding system was chosen specifically to reduce the weight of the installation. The shells are not thrown out, the shells are collected back into the drum, so as not to damage the skin of the aircraft when firing. The ammunition supply system is similar to that of the M61 Vulcan, but with a more modern design, which effectively saves weight. The design perfection of the GAU-8 / A Avenger aviation artillery system can be judged by the value of such an important characteristic as the proportion of the mass of shells in the mass of the entire gun mount. For GAU-8 / A this value is 32% (for example, the M61A1 cannon has only 19%). Such indicators were achieved due to the introduction of aluminum sleeves instead of steel and brass ones.
The GAU-8 / A firing mode at the maximum allowable rate is 10 two-second bursts with a minute air cooling between them. Already during the operation of the A-10 attack aircraft, it was found that during firing from a seven-barreled aircraft cannon, powder gases are sucked into the attack aircraft engine, as a result of which unburned powder particles are deposited on the compressor and engine fan blades. The accumulation of unburned powder particles after the execution of every 1000 shots reduces the thrust of the aircraft engine by 1%. The overall reduction in thrust of engines with jib reached 10%, which increased the likelihood of stalling the flow from the compressor blades and engines. In order to prevent the engines from stalling when firing from an artillery installation, special ignition devices were built into them in 1981, which ignite unburned powder particles. As a result of these measures, the problem of the accumulation of powder particles was solved.
The artillery mount is powered by PGU-14 / B armor-piercing sub-caliber projectiles (projectile mass 425 grams) and high-explosive fragmentation projectiles PGU-13 / B (projectile mass 360 grams). The standard ammunition for Thunderbolt attack aircraft is 1100 30-mm shells in the following order - for one PGU-13 / B high-explosive fragmentation projectile there are 4 PGU-14 / B armor-piercing shells with a depleted uranium core. The accuracy of firing from the aviation seven-barreled 30-mm GAU-8 / A cannon is characterized by the following indicators: 5 milliradians (mrad), 80% - this means that when firing at a distance of 1220 meters, 80% of all shells fall in a circle with a radius of 6, 1 meters. For example, for the aircraft gun M61 "Vulcan" this figure is 8 mrad.
Flight performance of the A-10 Thunderbolt II:
Overall dimensions: length - 16, 25 m, height - 4, 47 m, wingspan - 17, 53 m, wing area - 47 m2.
The empty weight of the aircraft is 11,321 kg.
The maximum take-off weight is 23,000 kg.
The power plant is 2 General Electric TF34-GE-100 turbofan engines with a thrust of 2x40, 32 kN.
The maximum permissible speed is 833 km / h.
The maximum speed at the ground is 706 km / h.
Cruising speed - 560 km / h.
Service ceiling - 13,700 m.
Combat radius of action - 460 km.
Ferry range - 4150 km.
Armament:
Small-cannon: 30-mm seven-barreled GAU-8 / A Avenger cannon, 1350 rounds of ammunition 30x173 mm.
Suspension points: 11 weapons suspension nodes (8 under the wing, 3 under the fuselage), maximum combat load 7260 kg.
Crew - 1 person.
