Well,...we knew it was coming. But its still sad. One of the greatest, most devastating planes is being put out to pasture. And as far as I know whatever they use to replace it will not equal the beast in any way....

So...

Enuf of my rant,...im just bitter to see it go.

My favorite aircraft.

The airforce top brass never liked that magnificent plane and they have tried to kill it at least 5 times before.

I fact, the plane was only accepted by the air force to avoid that the army would buy it for CAS purposes and this way construct itself an own airfoce next to the official US airforce.

According to the airforce, Close Air Support is a waste of time and assets that could be used much better in other ways.

But the plane has survived previous attempts to kill it, this may happen again.

In my view, taking this winner out of the inventory is stunningly stupid, certainly as they claim they will replace its gun and multi ton payload with that vaporware chicken called F-35

Living where I do under Tacroute 1 stretching from East Anglia to the Welsh ranges I was lucky enough to see many A-10's stationed at RAF Woodbridge in the 70's and 80's. Impressive was the word especially when the pilots suddenly changed direction. Those were the golden days with A-10's, RF-4's from Alconbury and F-111's from Upper Heyford vying for airspace with Harriers, Buccaneers, Jaguars, Hunters (in the 60's) and Phantoms, most at low level. Oh the memories

Hold your horses and check your facts

The US Airforce is CONSIDERING retiring the A-10 among other budget cutting proposals.

Furthermore the US Army has expressed an interest in the A-10 if it is given up by the Airforce.

Ian

Again. Which ought to kill those idiotic retirement plans dead. Again.

There's a quote I love about the A-10 which I got from TV Tropes about how the USAF brass keeps attempting to retire it in spite of how well it works. Apparently after Gulf War I "The USAF then started arguing that the A-10 may work in practice, but it still doesn't work in theory".

There's also this. Even Boeing would be unlikely to crow about getting such a big contract for a job that's about to go .

For those of you that have never seen an A-10 in "action" (and I am NOT talking about an airshow) it is in a word, impressive. In several words, devastatingly amazing and frighteningly so. Even buttoned up inside of an Abrams you could hear the engines and the gun. Needless to say it stopped ANY counter-offensive the republican guard tried to mount against us. Just picked up the old Tamiya kit this weekend at a show for $6, still in the plastic. Gonna be a fun build. Cheers.

yes, the fighter mafia HATES the A-10. They used to worry about bird strikes in the Warthog, something about ducks smashing into the rear of the plane.

Howdy..

I too love the look of the A-10 esp as it flies overhead. In the late 80's and early 90's I lived in Fort Smith AR, near the Air National Guard Side of the Airport (on the other side of the chain link fence to be exact.) At the time they were using F-16's mostly with other aircraft rotating in for training now and then.

Every now and then it seemed they would rotate a flight of A-10's in for training typically 2 at a time I think once or twice I saw 3. I loved to see them take off, land and do touch and goes at the airport.

Just outside of town there was a military base called Fort Chaffee,

In the late 80's it was pretty much only used as a training base. And had a large Gunnery Range. Smack in the middle of this base is a small single mountain, off limits to everyone and only known for as long as anyone can remember as Tater Hill. (its official military name is Razorback Range) Its been used for target practice since WWII used to be artillery but it was used for aircraft too.

There are a couple of roads in the area where you used to be able to get a good view of the Aircraft passing overhead to make their runs and if you were lucky You got to hear their cannon fire. The best spot was a road than ran through the middle of the base, but if you stopped there too long a patrol would show up and shoe you along.. Loved the Tank Crossing signs on that road too LOL During training times they would take down the fences and have MP's handy to stop traffic if need be..

I did find a photo of a A-10 making a run on Tater Hill..



from the 188 Figher wing

ok i know too longwinded.. what can I say fond memories. When I was a kid I remember the artillery practice at Tater hill would rattle the windows in our house, and we lived about 20 miles away.

Delbert

Well what the heck, the other day across my newsfeed I read A-10 to be retired. Apologies for any confusion. But the plane still works, and it works damn well. Why retire it? The B-52 still flies doesnt it?

I do hope the beast still soldiers on,...until they find a proper replacement.

I read a similar article in Combat Aircraft. They are one of several platforms that the Airforce is considering cancelling/retiring in the event of another sequestration budget. There was also, I believe, the option to retire the F-16, certain C-130s, and cancel the F-35 I think. The Air Force brass need to figure out a way to chop 54 billion dollars from their budget over the next 10 years, and the pet projects arent going to be the way. Mothballing the A-10 is a drop in the bucket of that cut. Our military needs to start realizing that all the tech in the world is useless if there arent people to walk through the front door after its blown down, and those people will need low, slow air support that can loiter on the non soviet battlefield.

Hi, Delbert - not long-winded, just good memories! Thanks for sharing them, and the for the photo - what the A-10 is all about.

Personally, I think the A-10 is the ideal modern-day successor to the original Spad and long may it stay so for the sake of the guys in harms way on the ground!

Thanks again for sharing your memories.
Ray

Slightly off topic here but hoping you wing-a-lings can help this CDAT (computerized dumb a$$ tanker, if your not up on the lingo) with an A-10 project. Picked up the old Tamiya 1/48 kit this weekend for $6, brand new. I know its not the best kit so how about recommendations on what after markets are available to make it better? Cheers.

If you're intending to show an operational bird it's a case of "jack up the windscreen, replace the aircraft, and then once that's done give it a new windscreen as well". The Tamiya kit represents one of the development aircraft from the '70s due to it having been tooled while the A-10 was still in the prototype stage.

The Revellogram or Hobby Boss kits are a better starting point for a modern A-10 than the Tamiya but if you're persistent, you may get the aftermarket parts intended for these kits to fit yours. Aires offers cockpits, wheel bays, electronic bays and ejection seats, Wolfpack Design has missile launchers, Eduard has a nice selection of etch available and Scale Aircraft Conversions offers white metal landing gear. Most of these are intended for the Hobby Boss, Italeri or Eduard kits so fit to your kit may or may not be approximate.

Of course if you want to show one of those nifty JAWS paint schemes, the Tamiya kit is just the ticket. Here's a discussion elseforum about the Tamiya kit as compared to the others available.

Good posts here. Enjoyable read.

Never heard anything about that myself, but I did hear that the AF was considering retiring the B-1. Don't know enough about it to know if it's a good/bad idea, but I sure would hate to see it go.

Was hoping to make the A-10 that pulled CAS for us in DS. Still trying to find the unit that it was with.

You won't be able to do that with the Tamiya kit; it's too different. Try to find the Revellogram one, or failing that backdate the Hobby Boss.

How about a color reference for the 1980's USAF 3 color scheme? The green, green, grey euro theater type?

So what would they use in the place of the GAU-8 carrier, I mean A10? (I have serious respect for a gun with wings-especially one that can push the plane backwards when it's fired.) I got to see one up close, including being fired, and I was lucky enough to be still here in the US when I did so. 'Bout the most I can say about it, but I'll never forget watching what it did to things-I'm sure glad it's ours.

Anyone ever tried to put this on something with tracks? Or does that frighten the logistics folks too?

The Europe One scheme was 34102 green, 34092 green and 36118 grey. Later on the grey was changed to 36081. On aircraft which had previously been painted in SEA camouflage (such as Phantoms, Herks, etc), green 34092 replaced green 34079 and grey 36118/36081 replaced tan 30219. The colours were wrapped around the undersides as well as the uppers.

Jess you rock. Cheers.

Hi Guys
This isn't quite on topic but check this video out.
Well it does have Hogs in it.

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/pentagon-partial-shutdown-017828/?utm_medium=textlink&utm_term=clickvideo

you may need to cut and paste.

Enjoy


Chris

Here's the Afterburner Decals pattern for the Europe One scheme:

My last day at my previous facility I was allowed to go to the Air Guard base and spend time in the A-10 simulator. I strafed a Nimitz class aircraft carrier, destroyed a taxing B-747, and shot down three airliners, plus buzzed my house. And I even managed to land the Hog and taxi to the ramp. I hope the A-10 hangs in there.

Boeing announced on September 4th that it has been awarded a follow on order worth $212million for 56 sets of wings. According to Boeing the wings will improve mission availability by 4% and save $1.3billion in maintenance costs. Boeings on contract to build 242 wings although the Air Force has ordered 173.