One pilot. One 30-mm seven-barrel Gatling gun. (Other weapons can load under the wing or fuselage. Or both.) And the A-10 Thunderbolt II can fly at 420 miles per hour. For 800 miles.
Nicknamed the Warthog, the aircraft is armed with a General Dynamics GAU-8/A Avenger 30mm cannon, mounted in the nose of the aircraft (see above).
The magazine can hold 1,350 rounds of ammunition. The pilot can select a firing rate of 2,100 or 4,200 rounds per minute.
The two turbofan engines, TF34-GE-100, are supplied by General Electric, and each provides 9,065 pounds of thrust. The location of the engines, high on the fuselage, allows the pilot to fly the aircraft fairly easily with one engine inoperable.
The pilot is protected by titanium armor that also protects parts of the flight-control system. That means the aircraft can survive direct hits from armor-piercing and high explosive projectiles. Manual systems back up their redundant hydraulic flight-control systems. This permits pilots to fly and land when hydraulic power is lost.
Many of the aircraft's parts are interchangeable left and right, including the engines, main landing gear and vertical stabilizers. The A-10 is scheduled to be flying with the USAF until 2028.
Source: USAF fact sheet, Langley AFB, Virginia.
Recent aviation industry contracts:Awarded to Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Stratford, Conn, Dec 17, 2008, a $812,786,103 fixed price contract for funding of third program year of multi-year contract for Army Lot 33 consisting of 51 UH-60M and 12 HH-60M Black Hawk helicopters, and also tooling; program systems, and technical publications. Work will be performed in Stratford, with an estimated completion date of 2012. One bid was solicited and one bid was received. U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aviation & Missile Command, Arsenal, Ala., is the contracting activity.
The Air Force is modifying a fixed price, fixed quantity contract to General Electric Aviation (Ohio) for $68,067,563. This contract action will provide newly redesigned high-pressure compressor and high-pressure turbine assemblies, newly redesigned aging engine upgrade components, initial provisioning spares and new technical data to support the life extension plan and aging engine upgrade initiatives applicable to F-16 aircraft. At this point, the entire amount has been obligated. 448 SCMG/PKBC, Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. is the contracting activity.
Source: U.S. Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense
