pbar Posted November 19, 2011 Posted November 19, 2011 Interesting. Any A-10 drivers out there up for this?"The U.S. military’s veteran A-10 Thunderbolt II is built for battle: a titanium-armored cockpit protects its pilot from explosive projectile hits, and it can carry weapons like a 30-mm nose-mounted cannon to take out enemy tanks. Now the National Science Foundation (NSF) plans to arm a retired Thunderbolt not with bombs, but with scientific instruments, and use it to study the inside of violent thunderstorms—where winds, hail, and lightning would take down lesser planes. The NSF recently awarded a $10.9 million grant to the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., a to refurbish a retired Thunderbolt for use as a storm-penetrating research plane, the journal Science reported this week. Stripped of weapons....." Read more: Weather-Studying Warthog: A Fixed-Up A-10 Will Fly Into Thunderstorms - A-10 Thunderbolt II - Popular Mechanics
spudsmac Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 (edited) Sounds pretty cool to me. I don't know much about the water/hail ingestion limits, but aren't all the current storm chasers turboprops right now? Besides the facts that they are all well proven airframes, I wonder if it has anything to do with the intakes? The A-10 replaces a T-28, a small, single-propeller armored plane that flew into storms for 35 years before it was grounded in 2005. That sounds nerve wracking in a single engine piston aircraft! Edited November 20, 2011 by spudsmac
Learjetter Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 Guess they decided against the c-17... 3
tacairlift Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 An F-106 did this a while ago for NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/aeronautics/features/fisher-2020.html
LockheedFix Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 Guess they decided against the c-17... Ha, good one. I always appreciate a good C-17 jab.
Fred Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 (edited) This is an article about the T-28 that was built to fly into thunderstorms. I thought it was an interesting read. https://www.ravens.org/T-28pilot.htm Edited November 20, 2011 by Fred
JarheadBoom Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 (edited) This is an article about the T-28 that was built to fly into thunderstorms. I thought it was an interesting read. https://www.ravens.org/T-28pilot.htm Wow.... edit: added linkage Edited November 20, 2011 by JarheadBoom
gimmeaplane Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 Shouldn't a storm chaser be able to actually catch a storm? Horrible choice. On a serious note, if they're going to refurb a Hog for science experiments, why not the family model sitting in the sun at Edwards.? Then a trunk monkey can get all science-y in the back seat.
BlackKnight Posted November 20, 2011 Posted November 20, 2011 Not sure if I'm missing something, or they haven't thought this through. The airplane can take damage, yes- it's tough. But the fan blades don't take kindly to hail- not one bit. Had a 2-ship go through some in OEF last year and every fan blade was f'd. So, I guess if they can guarantee that the storm won't get worse and produce hail- sure go for it... Anything's better than the plans for the LGPOS- it even comes on a stick about to take an AMRAAM up the arse:
Chuck Sargent Posted November 21, 2011 Posted November 21, 2011 I recall us watching a movie at the AIS about century series fighters doing this. I think they called them "Rough Riders." Ring a bell for anyone?
Prosuper Posted November 21, 2011 Posted November 21, 2011 https://www.walters-online.com/guppy.htm This what happens when you fly T-38's through a hail storm, I imagine the two TF-34's can take the abuse by hail but why would you want to do that, I imagine there budget doesn't have space in it for multiple engine changes plus sharing spares with the USAF as the only source of logistics they would be on the lowest priority for parts, the leading edges of a A-10 would look like swiss cheese or crazy bitch girlfriend went nuts with a ball peen hammer.
ClearedHot Posted November 21, 2011 Posted November 21, 2011 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ insert joke about the hail striking the fan blades from the back ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I always preferred the "they replaced the airspeed indicator with a calendar" joke better. f that Whats the big deal?
Guest Posted November 21, 2011 Posted November 21, 2011 (edited) f that Amen. Unfortunately, Hogs have been storm chasers since the first one rolled off the line. The inability to climb over something as small as a 30k foot cell means you're gonna take some hail damage...just hope you remember to stow the pod and you're not carrying enough missiles to make it a class A when you hit the hail. Hail is loud, especially at night min fuel over indian country. Edited November 21, 2011 by Rainman A-10
moosepileit Posted November 21, 2011 Posted November 21, 2011 Guess they decided against the c-17... Seeing as both our airframes are highlights of the recent CRM yearly training, not sure I'd be so quick to cast stones at another's MWS.
Learjetter Posted November 22, 2011 Posted November 22, 2011 Seeing as both our airframes are highlights of the recent CRM yearly training, not sure I'd be so quick to cast stones at another's MWS. Touché? Or just touchy? Let the audience decide...
Chuck17 Posted November 22, 2011 Posted November 22, 2011 Guess they decided against the c-17... Thats FANTASTIC. HA! +1 to you brother... Chuck
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