Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II facts for kids
The A-10 Thunderbolt II is a powerful airplane built by Fairchild Republic. People often call it the Warthog because of its tough look. It first flew in 1972 and started being used by the military in 1977.
This plane is made to attack enemies on the ground. It can drop bombs, shoot rockets and missiles. Its most famous weapon is a huge 30 mm Gatling Gun. The A-10 is great at hitting targets like tanks.
It got its name from an older plane, the World War II P-47 Thunderbolt. The A-10 is not as fast as most other military jets. But it is very strong, has heavy armor, and can turn quickly.
The A-10 is also used for something called CAS, which means Close Air Support. This is when the plane flies slowly over an area to help ground troops. It finds and destroys enemy targets close to friendly forces.
The A-10 is about 16 meters (53 feet, 4 inches) long. It stands about 4.4 meters (14 feet, 8 inches) high. Its wings stretch out 17.4 meters (57 feet, 6 inches). This plane can fly up to 420 miles per hour. When it's fully loaded, it can weigh about 22,950 kilograms (51,000 pounds).
It carries a large 30 mm GAU-8 Gatling gun. It can also hold several tons of bombs or missiles on its wings. The A-10 can even carry special pods that jam radar. This makes it harder for enemies to see it. It can also release chaff, which are small pieces of material that confuse enemy missiles.
The Powerful Gun
The A-10 has lots of space on its wings for bombs and missiles. But its main weapon is a huge gun. This gun is called the GAU-8 Avenger. It is a very long and heavy gun. It's a type of Gatling cannon. This means it fires large bullets very fast. It also has more than one barrel that spin when it shoots.
The Avenger gun is so big that the A-10 plane was built around it. People joke that the A-10 isn't a plane with a gun. Instead, it's a gun with a plane attached to it! The A-10 is the only plane that uses the Avenger gun. Other American planes use a smaller Gatling cannon called the Vulcan.
The Avenger gun fires very big bullets. These are like small artillery shells that are 3 cm wide. They can also explode. It fires them very fast, up to 40 bullets every second!
Many people think this gun can destroy any target easily. They even think it can destroy tanks with thick armor. But this is not quite true. The bullets can go through thin metal on cars or trucks. However, they usually cannot get through the thick metal on the front or sides of a tank.
The gun can destroy tanks because most tanks only have thinner metal on their top. This makes them lighter. If an A-10 manages to shoot a tank from above, it can cause serious damage. But if it shoots the front or side, the tank will likely not be harmed.
Related pages
Images for kids
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By the time of the Vietnam War, the 1940s-vintage propeller-driven Skyraider was the USAF's only dedicated close air support aircraft. It was slow, vulnerable to ground fire, and relatively lightly armed.
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The Lockheed AH-56 Cheyenne appeared to offer the possibility of handing much of the tactical air-to-ground role to the U.S. Army.
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An A-10A of pre-glass cockpit design
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Two A-10s in formation
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A-10C Warthog cockpit at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum 2012 Become a Pilot Day
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A-10 inboard profile drawing
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Front view of an A-10 showing the 30 mm cannon and offset front landing gear
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Front view of the A-10's GAU-8 installation
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A-10 Thunderbolt II, fully armed
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AN ALQ-184 ECM Pod on display at a USAF museum. It is mounted on either pylon 1 or 11 (outside pylons) on the A-10C
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An A-10 from the 343rd Tactical Fighter Wing prepares to drop Mark 82 bombs at the Yukon Command Training Site in 1988.
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Arkansas Air National Guard A-10C firing an AGM-65 air-to-surface missile on a firing range at Davis-Monthan AFB
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A-10A after Operation Desert Storm, 1992
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An A-10A during Operation Allied Force
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A-10 over Afghanistan, 2011
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An A-10 peels away from a KC-135 tanker over Afghanistan, February 2011 with Pave Penny pod visible and featuring a false canopy painted in dark gray on the underside.
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23rd Fighter Group A-10 Thunderbolt IIs on alert
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U.S. Air Force crewmen perform maintenance on an A-10's nose in the Persian Gulf region in 2003
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A newly updated A-10C arrives at Davis-Monthan AFB, 29 November 2006.
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An A-10 Thunderbolt II refueling
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Four A-10s of the 103d Fighter Squadron, Pennsylvania Air National Guard, fly in formation during a refueling mission.
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A-10C of the 163d Fighter Squadron, Fort Wayne Air National Guard
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USAF A-10A showing kill markings from Operation Desert Storm, 1991
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An A-10 firing its 30 mm GAU-8 Gatling gun during testing
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A-10A at Museum of Aviation, Robins AFB
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Schematics of A-10C
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A-10's 30 mm GAU-8 Avenger cannon
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See also
In Spanish: Fairchild-Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II para niños
