WT Forums

I don't know if it is allready placed here.
Part one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7AKa8b- ... ed&search=
part two
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1qtsCY2 ... ed&search=
part three
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwhZp7EG ... ed&search=
part four
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFzQoXAX ... ed&search=
part five
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujkNgGqp ... ed&search=

_________________
73-1664

I can't believe considering how much time I've spent on youtube that I've never seen this on my own. Very cool Dutchy, Thanks.

Great series Dutchy! Good eyes Lad!

YOU ROCK!

_________________
Slow is Fast, Fast is Slow
Violence may not be the best option, but it IS an option

Those videos were pretty sweet, one question though? I noticed the original GAU-8A Avenger had 6 barrels (according to the videos), when did they make the change to 7?

I think I read somewhere, that the first prototypes had the 6 barreled 20mm guns. I think it may be because the GAU-8A wasn't ready yet. They were only used for early testing. The GAU-8A though, to the best of my knowledge, was always a 7 barreled 30mm.

I just went back and watched again. I think you're talking about the scene about half way through the 2nd video, where they show the first prototype being rolled out. In the next scene, you can see a close up of the nose, and the very small 20mm.

Again, I think this was a Proof of Concept prototype. Be sure though, that the A-10 was never fielded with that tiny gun. I worked on some of the first ones, back in the mid 70's when DM first got them. I'd started out on the A-7D's with the 358th. The 333'd had just recieved their A-10s when I got there in 78, and we got ours about 3 or 4 months later.

_________________
Slow is Fast, Fast is Slow
Violence may not be the best option, but it IS an option

You are correct Ice Pirate.

QUICK! GRAB A STONE TABLET AND A SCRIBE! My wife will never believe this!

Nice to know that this old "Muzzle F#@ker" can still get one right from time to time.

This all got me to thinking so I did a little looking about, and found this site again.
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsh ... sp?id=3199
It has some great pics of the YA-10A that was the first one to roll out. It also mentions that the first tests were made with a 20mm Vulcan in both the YA-10A and the YA-9A that were compeating for the contract.

If you take a look though the pics, you can also see that the first one didn't have leading edge slats, but they were later added on. Likewise with the wind fences, those verticle fins that are bolted to the bottom edges of the side just forward of the wings leading edge. The vertical stabs also had a more angular look to them. It's really amazing how many additions were made on the test bed of that old bird.

_________________
Slow is Fast, Fast is Slow
Violence may not be the best option, but it IS an option

ROFL, good one Ice Pirate!

Also the YA-10s had no internal boarding ladder, the wings were extended 6" in the production jets and, the body of the YA-10s were squarer and not as rounded as the production aircraft.

Great info Dice. I'd have never noticed those just by looking.

I have been looking a lot at the YA-9 that Northrop fielded to compeat and looked at all kinds of pics of it. One question though, where was the gun on that one? The only thing I've been able to find was a small port just below the center point of the nose, but there doesn't seem to be enough room to put a Vulcan, much less a GAU-8.

Looking at the YA-9, I can really see why they went with the A-10. The twin engines of the 9 are just off the ground, talk about a FOD nightmare, and with them both packed so tightly together, it'd be easy to get an IR lock. Also, with the single tail, it has a little less redundancy than the A-10. Odd that the Soviets, copied the A-9 too. Sucks to be them I guess.

_________________
Slow is Fast, Fast is Slow
Violence may not be the best option, but it IS an option

The plan was to placed the gun in the center fuselage, between the two engines. The port you see would have been the muzzle. I know it looks tight and all the details hadn’t been worked-out, that’s another reason they went with the A-10 over the A-9, it was (if I remember correctly) 85% production ready at the time of the fly-off.

Believe it or not it was a close race between the two and it could have gone either way servile times. The A-9 had better control in certain flight realms, it was faster, guns gas would be vented out the bottom away from the intakes and, the A-9 was lower to the ground which aided with some types of maintiance, just to name a few plusses.

Just for your info the engines would have had a titanium plate separating them for increased survivability and they would have had (maybe) a FOD screen to protect them ala the MIG-29 and A-37

If the A-9 has won the competition, we would all be flying/working F-16s now. No way would those have lasted as long as the Hog has.

I will see if I can find them, but I I have some photos of a SU-25 Frogfoot I got to climb around this summer at Dushanbe. Piece of crap! No way would I have tried to fly one.

Coach

Ice Pirate. If you look for a real YA-9a, you have to go to March afb. They have a museum. It stands outdoor.
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.s ... entry=true

_________________
73-1664

the Hog may be ugly, but the YA-9 is boring. IMHO, of course.

_________________
\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

Thanks Dutchy! There are some great shots on that site.

30mm, couldn't agree with you more. It's really nice to have worked on an aircraft that really stands out in a crowd. Living just off base of Buckley AFB which see's a lot of transit aircraft, I hear a lot of folks miss identify most of the birds flying over. \"Is that an F-15 or an F-18?\" But when a Hawg flys over, there's no question in anyone's mind, and all you hear is, \"WOW, an A-10!\" Which is the perfect lead in to... \"Ya' know, back when I was at DM...\"

_________________
Slow is Fast, Fast is Slow
Violence may not be the best option, but it IS an option

YA-9 on first glance looks like an imitation SU-25 frogfoot.

It's the other way around, outamyhead...the Frogfoot copied us...and got the wrong one. btw, welcome to the WT!

_________________
\"Those who hammer their guns into plows
will plow for those who do not.\"
- Thomas Jefferson

Ah...might explain why one of the pilots of the frogfoot hated being assigned to flying it during the Afghanistan war (pilot was on a documentary about it, might have been a Wings episode). Thanks for updating me 30mike-mike, didn't know about the YA-9 until this post.

Will watch the A-10 documentary tonight, can't wait

Just tried looking at the videos and they have vanished, anyone that has seen it catch what the documentary was called (was it a wings episode or history channel) as I will see if I can get hold of it another way.