06-21-2019, 07:02 AM
I've been watching some old episodes of the History Channel's Air Warriors.
It's covered several military planes from pre-WWII to present day.
Among them were the P-38 Lightning, Spitfire, F6F Hellcat (supposedly was going to be called the Tomcat, but that was deemed too racy for the military REMFs), AC-130, F-4 Phantom, Harrier, and my one of my all time favorites – the A-10.
Geeze, I love that plane, er — that gun with a plane wrapped around it.
There were other interesting planes in other episodes, but the above were some of my favorites (oh, and the EA6-B!).
Of particular interest was an A-10 driver named Kim Campbell. She and her flight leader were providing CAS and after a successful mission were RTB when her A-10 took a huge impact. She lost all hydraulics and had to fly by cable. She had the option of punching out but chose to fly it in.
She is one of only two A-10 gunfighters to ever land one manually and the only one to survive.
Quite a story.
I was really impressed at the fact the Air Force didn't want the A-10 in the first place and tried three or four times to get rid of it, prematurely, as it turned out.
I wonder if there is/are any A-10s privately owned. One would have to lose the Avenger, but a mock-up would be a must!
It's covered several military planes from pre-WWII to present day.
Among them were the P-38 Lightning, Spitfire, F6F Hellcat (supposedly was going to be called the Tomcat, but that was deemed too racy for the military REMFs), AC-130, F-4 Phantom, Harrier, and my one of my all time favorites – the A-10.
Geeze, I love that plane, er — that gun with a plane wrapped around it.
There were other interesting planes in other episodes, but the above were some of my favorites (oh, and the EA6-B!).
Of particular interest was an A-10 driver named Kim Campbell. She and her flight leader were providing CAS and after a successful mission were RTB when her A-10 took a huge impact. She lost all hydraulics and had to fly by cable. She had the option of punching out but chose to fly it in.
She is one of only two A-10 gunfighters to ever land one manually and the only one to survive.
Quite a story.
I was really impressed at the fact the Air Force didn't want the A-10 in the first place and tried three or four times to get rid of it, prematurely, as it turned out.
I wonder if there is/are any A-10s privately owned. One would have to lose the Avenger, but a mock-up would be a must!