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This one is aimed at you jackb because you are at Eielson.
I noticed in Don Logans latest book that the AK Hogs have the intake lip of the engine nacelles painted a dark grey, I saw it again on some pictures taken at Nellis last year on AK A-10's.....just wondered what the reason was.

BB, I believe that's for anti-icing but I'll let jackb verify that.

Well, not really anti-icing, but for icing visibility. This way it is easier for the pilot to see icing in flight compared to a regular grey intake. The spinner domes are dark gray as well for the same reason.

It looked a touch unusual when I first got here, but you get used to it really quick. Now other A-10s look a little \"off\". Its very subtle. When you see another jet, you look at it like, man, something is wrong on that one, but I can't figure out what.

Before the jets that have already left for BRAC leave, they have to have all markings removed, wing/squadron off the fuselage, name window off the front, AK off the tail, and black tips on the vertical stab painted over as well. The gray inlet and spinner domes are also painted regular gray during this as well, so when the jet arrives at its new home, it has no markings of any kind except the US circle/star and its tail number.

Thanks for that, it does seem logical.
I did wonder if it was something to do with the climate the AK Hog's operate in.

Jack, your right the first time I look through the pic's you sent I completely missed it. For those of you who don't have Don's book, here are a couple of jackb's pics as a visual reference of what their talking about.

Seems like I remember seeing something simular to this only with 3M tape applied to the leading edge of the intake and wings.

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Faugh ah Ballaugh ~ Clear the Way

I guess I should have been a little more specific in my response.

That does look kinda crazy....

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Seriously, it looks weird without it to us stationed here. When we were at Nellis I watched a few of Thunders jets taxi by and they looked \"different\" but I couldn't figure what.
It's a very subtle difference that you only notice subconciously. It took a minute realize what was different. But I knew something was different immidiately.

At Pope, about halfway through out time there, when they painted a jet they started to put some glossy 3M tape on the wings and horizontal stabs leading edges, but I don't think (or at least I don't remember) the intake. The tape was clear, so it was still light gray. I think the reason they said they were doing it was to clean the holocaust of bugs on the leading edges off easier. They just kind of wiped off with pen-air and not a whole lot of scrubbing was required.

I remember back in 1990, the 78th TFS had some Hogs with the rearmost edge of the engine pods edged in white......I kid you not.
Additionally, instead of the 'last 3' presentation of the serial number on the nose (the last 3 was on the nose above the gun back then) they had a 5 figure representation, in the case I saw, tail 81-941, had '10941' on its nose.