First, there was this gun...

[H]

But when you condense it into a post, it really makes you think, "thunderbolt and lightning, very very frightening".

A lot of jolt to the bolt...
[center]

[BigTruck]

As most of you know, I am a Marine, and as some of you know, every Marine is a rifleman.  So in my book, any plane designed around a gun as beastly as that is sexy in my book!   8-)

I am a huge fan of the Hog as it is a very close friend of us ground pounders when we need close air support.  The strafing capabilities are amazing and the wing load out can disable an enemy bunker/tank/any other scary thing we might encounter in a heartbeat.

Nice post!

[beaky]

Very cool post!! The A-10 is one of my all-time favorites. If I had my 20s to re-live, I'd go straight from high school to the Air Force, where I would make  a complete nuisance of myself until they stuck me in an A-10 and ordered me to shred stuff on the ground. Let the others have the fighters- nowadays you rarely even see your target in a dogfight, or when dropping smart ordnance on ground targets. the A-10 is for making stuff go away when you point the airplane at it, while sneering at pathetic small-arms fire. I love that.

[patchz]

[quote]Very cool post!! The A-10 is one of my all-time favorites. If I had my 20s to re-live, I'd go straight from high school to the Air Force, where I would make

[DaveSims]

I have always had a softspot for A-10s.  I grew up just north of New Orleans, where a squadron is based, and lived on a low altitude military training route.  Almost everyday two A-10s would come by low level at the same time.  Even today I remember that sound.

[ViperPilot]

Back in the late 80's I had a chance to attend an Air Show at Buckley AFB that was put on by the USAF. They had a Warthog there, and I was able to get close up to the Avenger.
The gun had a Flash Suppressor mounted to it, and I was able to take my thumb and place it inside one of the barrels with room to spare; Man, was that 30mm BIG! 

Another nice thing is that like her old comrade in arms the A-7 you could mount AIM-9 Sidewinders to her and be able to fire them, in a pinch.

Alan