Must-Have Equipment: A-10 Thunderbolt

Todd Renshaw

EF2
Joined
Dec 1, 2010
Messages
152
Location
Detroit area, Michigan
Where do I sign up for this!

http://www.accuweather.com/blogs/news/story/57923/fighter-jet-being-transformed.asp#.Tsatuxxs62Q.facebook

Sounds like a fun ride. Although I'm dubious that it will really withstand hail strikes. Seems to me you'd eventually wreck your turbine blades, etc. Could get expensive. Maybe if they keep the gatling gun with depleted uranium shells they can blast their way through the hail. :)

Also, nice job on the main photo. I'm sure that's exactly what it'll look like in action. :rolleyes:
 
Notice in the comments section someone posted a air-show crash video link. That's exactly what will happen to the plane if it gets into some strong downdraft or a microburst.
 
Great picture in the article (I think it's a fake! :eek: ), as if the plane is about to swoop down and core punch the tornado.

Perhaps part of the $10M is for beefier first stage compressor blades, a thicker canopy (?), and other hail survival modifications.
 
Greg Campbell said:
Perhaps part of the $10M is for beefier first stage compressor blades, a thicker canopy (?), and other hail survival modifications.
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I bet they blow it all on gas :D I can't think of a better plane for this role. The A-10 is already designed to take a pounding from strikes much worse than hail and withstand significant damage and keep flying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairchild_Republic_A-10_Thunderbolt_II
The A-10 is exceptionally tough. Its strong airframe can survive direct hits from armor-piercing and high-explosive projectiles up to 23 mm.

The aircraft is designed to fly with one engine, one tail, one elevator and half a wing torn off.

The cockpit and parts of the flight-control system are protected by 1,200 lb (540 kg) of titanium armor, referred to as a "bathtub".[39][40] The armor has been tested to withstand strikes from 23 mm cannon fire and some strikes from 57 mm rounds.

In addition, the front windscreen and canopy are resistant to small arms fire.
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I don't think hail is going to be much of an issue for the survivability of the aircraft. Whoever flies that is going to be the most badass chaser out there. As a pilot, I've dreamed about taking to the air to chase, but I'd be poking around a mile or two ahead of the base in a Cessna. I'm super envious that someone gets to chase with an A-10 as their chase vehicle.
 
Skip Talbot said:
... Whoever flies that is going to be the most badass chaser out there. As a pilot, I've dreamed about taking to the air to chase, but I'd be poking around a mile or two ahead of the base in a Cessna. I'm super envious that someone gets to chase with an A-10 as their chase vehicle.
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I call "shotgun". Well, I only completed ground school, and that was years ago, so I'll volunteer to shoot video. :)
 
Awesome!
Can't think of a better built bird for the job. (Outside of the ole 130's of course)
 
No your missing the true mission here, Vortex 3 will call it in to take the storm chasing hordes out that are interfering with them and no TIV or Dominator will be safe.
 
No your missing the true mission here, Vortex 3 will call it in to take the storm chasing hordes out that are interfering with them and no TIV or Dominator will be safe.
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Nice! Haha! "Theres some heavy chaser traffic blocking the road bearing 060 from us, range 1 mile, on the main road, can you lay in a few cluster bombs?"
 
A-10's being fitted to fly near tornadic storms

now that's freakin' cool! I wish I could be the pilot during one of these missions!


http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/fighter-jet-being-transformed/57923

Tornado chasing is already extreme, but it's about to be taken to a whole new level.

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced that it will spend more than $10 million on converting an A-10 Thunderbolt attack aircraft, aka the "tank killer," into a severe storm penetrator.

Already hardened for wartime use, the A-10 will be able to endure incredibly severe environments such as those found in intense severe thunderstorms, according to NSF's Brad Smull. From battering hail, high winds and lightning strikes, the A-10 will be able to handle it all.

This will not be the first aircraft to be flown into severe thunderstorms for the purpose of advancing science. The A-10 will actually be a replacement for the veteran T-28 military trainer, which was flown on storm chasing missions for 35 years before being grounded in 2005.

While the T-28 was successful in collecting data on variables such as wind speed, water vapor and electrical currents, the A-10 will be capable of carrying more instruments, flying higher and staying in storms longer than the T-28, according to sciencemag.org.

"We are very excited about the A-10's capabilities," said Sonia Lasher-Trapp with Purdue University in a live chat on ScienceNOW Thursday. "We have the need to 'see' inside the storms - the rain, the ice, the hail - and this aircraft will help us do that, in stronger storms than we've ever sampled before."

The main goal with the project is to advance the science of meteorology by gaining a better understanding of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes so that more accurate forecasts and warnings can be issued to save lives and property.

"Right now we can forecast the potential for severe storms to have damaging wind, hail, lightning and tornadoes, but much more needs to be learned to refine and improve these forecasts," explained Lasher-Trapp. "The improvements we seek must come in part from better data collection inside the storms, with which we can test our ideas, models, and interpretations of other meteorological data."

She continued, "The potential payoff is huge: What if you could forecast lightning from a given storm, and someday be able to warn the public that the storms on a particular summer afternoon are going to be especially electrical, or say with high certainty that really big hailstones will fall? No promises that these answers will come very soon, but those would be some of the ultimate goals."

The NSF hopes the A-10 will be ready for initial use and testing as soon as 2013.
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