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The thread about 82-0665 being the last A-10 ever got me thinking (I know, bad idea). Was every A-10's final assembly point at Hagerstown? What went on at the Fairchild plant in Farmingdale, on Long Island, NY? Just parts, or were A-10's also assembled there? I'm curious about what happened there, because I grew up a few miles away from the plant in Farmingdale. The hangars and building were empty (at least they looked empty/abandoned) as long as I could remember, and about 6 years ago or so they were torn down and a shopping center and movie theatre built in their place.

"The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other." - Ronald Reagan

Jack, the two YA-10s, 6 pre-production (DT&E), and four production A-10s were built at the Farmingdale plant, after that all A-10s were built at the Hagerstown plant with some subassembly work being done at the Faringdale plant.

Ugly But Well Hung

Cool, Thanks

"The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other." - Ronald Reagan

If I remember correctly (don't bet the ranch on it), the major subassemblies were built at these places during high rate production:

Wing Center Section - Farmingdale
Fuselage (forward, mid, aft) - Farmingdale
Outboard Wings - Hagerstown
Empennage - Hagerstown
All bonded honeycomb stuff (Nacelle Doors, deceleron panels, rudders, elevators, leading edges) - Hagerstown (bond shop)
Nacelle major structure, engine buld-up, and "power pack" assembly - Farmingdale
I know it sounds inefficient but the outboard wings, control surfaces and landing gear were shipped to Farmingdale for wing assembly, then the wing was shipped back to Hagerstown (by special truck) for aircraft assembly. It was similar for the nacelle parts.

During the last year the Farmingdale plant was operational (1986-87 ?) they built Saab/Fairchild SF-340 wings and empenneage, C-5B landing gear pods, Boeing 747 wing "feathers" (flaps, spoilers and ailerons), F-4 empennage spares, some B-1B horzontal tail detail parts, and some T-46 trainers.

THE RAMPTOR ENGINEERING TEAM <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
"Who cares if it works? Does it look good on the ramp?"

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There's a museum in Garden City on Long Island called The Cradle of Aviation (becuase so much aviation stuff happend on L.I. like Lindberg flying out of there, and the space program in the 60's...). Anyway, The museum was closed for almost 10 yrs for a major renovation and just reopend about a year ago. They have 1 and a 1/2 A-10's there. A fully complete one and a foward fuselage. Alot of the volunteers who work there were former engineers from the industry, and the last time I was there I was talking with a guy who designed part of the A-10. It was pretty cool.

"The government is like a baby's alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other." - Ronald Reagan

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There's a museum in Garden City on Long Island called The Cradle of Aviation... <hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote></font id=quote><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size=2 id=quote>

Yup, here's what they say about the Warthog.

http://www.cradleofaviation.org/exhibit ... index.html

<b>Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II
Farmingdale, 1977</b>

In 1973 the Fairchild-Republic Company of Farmingdale was selected to build the A-10, the first Air Force plane specifically designed for close air support. Designed for the accurate delivery of ordnance at low altitude, the A-10 is the most heavily armed, and armored, plane in history. As it was originally designed to counter Soviet tanks in Europe, the A-10 is equipped with up to 16,000 pounds of Maverick missiles, laser-guided bombs and a seven-barrel 30mm GAU/8A "Gatling Gun" cannon. Able to fire up to 4200 rounds per minute, no attack aircraft in history has ever mounted a gun with the tank-killing capability of the GAU/8A.

The A-10 was also designed to be able to survive in an intense anti-aircraft environment including anti-aircraft guns, radar-guided and infrared missiles, and be able to absorb battle damage and keep flying. In fact, the A-10 is probably the most difficult plane to shoot down ever built, due to its extreme maneuverability, electronic countermeasures, self-sealing fuel tanks, widely separated jet engines, twin tails, manual backup flight control system and redundant wing spars. The pilot and vital flight control elements are also protected by 1" thick titanium armor plate. A total of 713 A-10's were built through 1984, at a cost of only $20 million each, and about 300 will serve with the USAF until 2015.

A-10's were widely used in the 1991 Persian Gulf War Where they demonstrated their ability as the greatest tank-killing aircraft in history. A total of 144 A-10's were deployed to the Gulf and they flew 8624 missions with only five aircraft being lost. They destroyed a total of 967 tanks, 1026 pieces of artillery, 1306 trucks, 281 military structures, 53 Scud missiles, 10 aircraft on the ground and two aircraft in the air. Pilots often flew up to three missions per day and in all A-10's accounted for destroying 1/4 of Iraq's entire arsenal. Several aircraft survived direct hits from heat-seeking missiles and managed to return to base.

This A-10 is an early production aircraft built in 1977. It served with the 354th Tactical Fighter Wing at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, until 1982 and then with the 45th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Grissom AFB, Indiana until 1992. It spent its last two years as a battle damage repair training aircraft. It is now in the markings of Captain Michael Baltzer of Albertson, who flew 33 A-10 missions during the Gulf War.


THE RAMPTOR ENGINEERING TEAM <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
"Who cares if it works? Does it look good on the ramp?"

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I'm proud to say I helped provide some of the parts to put that jet back together.
The tail number is 76-0535. One of two 76 models we had at Grissom.
I was hoping that would restore it to either our colors of the 354th's since that was where it was stationed. The door art we had for 535 was a pic of an A-10 swooping through the clouds and heading "Gentleman's Delight"
Cheers
db

Being responsible means sometimes pissing people off.
Gen Colin Powell ret