A-10 Warthog

[GGTharos]

ZQZ (I hope you don't mind if I use that for short! :) ), the cannon you already know is pretty large.

Slaving it to a helmet wouldn't help much for a couple reasons: The fine aiming you are thinking of probably can't be done by looking at things, and two, the gun itself puts out a pretty wide pattern (20' at 1nm IIRC). Also, even a 4-degree slew in this case is impractical (look at an A-10 picture and give a moment's thought to the volume and mechanization required of such a thing).

 

Finally, no helmet sighting system on the A-10 :)

[Bucic]

ZQZ (I hope you don't mind if I use that for short! :) ), the cannon you already know is pretty large.

Slaving it to a helmet wouldn't help much for a couple reasons: The fine aiming you are thinking of probably can't be done by looking at things, and two, the gun itself puts out a pretty wide pattern (20' at 1nm IIRC). Also, even a 4-degree slew in this case is impractical (look at an A-10 picture and give a moment's thought to the volume and mechanization required of such a thing).

 

Finally, no helmet sighting system on the A-10 :)

Aaaaand finaly :music_whistling: there is gun's recoil momentum around A-10's center of mass. The recoil is probably a solid couple of tons. If gun's axis would be off the center of mass the consequences might be... well, hilarious for talibs to watch from the ground :D

 

- Hey, Akhhmed, do we pop a Stinger or do we wait for him to fire his cannon and do a backflip? :bounce:

Edited March 1, 2010 by Bucic

[ZQuickSilverZ]

Well, yeah I can see that four degrees would be a major undertaking NOW. I did'nt know the cannons details before I made my first post though. And the very last post I made wasn't to argue the possibility. It was only to show the thought process of why I asked that in the first place. Seeing the sheer size of the cannon now, and imagineing the recoil something like that might generate and I can see why slewing would be impractical.

 

Also I don't mind the abreviation of ZQZ. I use QS or ZQSZ alot myself.

Edited March 1, 2010 by ZQuickSilverZ

[connos]

I have read somewhere that the A10 has a special Trim mode to use before you fire the BIG GUN to assist you to stable fire and hit your target. Is that true?

[Feuerfalke]

I have read somewhere that the A10 has a special Trim mode to use before you fire the BIG GUN to assist you to stable fire and hit your target. Is that true?

 

Sure sounds like it:

 

... My favorite function is located in the trigger on the flight stick. It has an intermediate detent — you squeeze it in, and then add more pressure to get it through the stop to fully depressed. That equates to a gun-firing function in the actual aircraft-basically, you squeeze the trigger to the first stop, which designates a place on the ground that the aircraft's autopilot will try to stabilize and fly you to. Then a heavy squeeze through the stop fires the gun. ...

 

Source:

http://www.simhq.com/_air13/air_440a.html

[Mugenjin]

minor computer assisted rudder input may also necessary since the gun is not mounted perfectly in the middle of the fuselage (just a bit offset to the left from the pilots view).

[GGTharos]

There is no computer-assisted anything on the A-10.

[sobek]

There is no computer-assisted anything on the A-10.

 

Hmm. You insist? :)

[Feuerfalke]

There is no computer-assisted anything on the A-10.

 

How do you define "no computer-assisted anything"?

 

In a sense of "there is no fly-by-whire-system in the A-10" or as "there nothing that is made of >0.1 gramm of Silicium involved in controlling the A-10" ? :D

[GGTharos]

I mean the FBW :D

 

There is a hydraulic/analogue control assist system, but there's nothing like fly-by-wire :)

[Speed]

I mean the FBW :D

 

There is a hydraulic/analogue control assist system, but there's nothing like fly-by-wire :)

 

What about the thing that Feuerfalke found? How does that receive data from the aircraft's computers? Or is it an independent system? In order to try to ground stabilize the aircraft's nose, it has to receive data at least from some sort of INS... if you're saying that the INS generates an analog voltage input into some hydrolic system, then that's still fly by wire, at least when the first trigger detent is pressed...

[Wags]

I have read somewhere that the A10 has a special Trim mode to use before you fire the BIG GUN to assist you to stable fire and hit your target. Is that true?

 

This is the Precision Attitude Control System (PACS) that uses the trim and SAS system to maintain the CCIP pipper in pitch and yaw on the target point at PACS stage 1 pull. PACS stage 2 then fires the gun. Yes, it will be DCS: A-10C.

 

You'll want a dual stage trigger for this.

[Boulund]

Neat!

[norm]

Even thought the gun is off center, the barrel that fires is on center.

[Feuerfalke]

Even thought the gun is off center, the barrel that fires is on center.

 

The gun is off center?

[sobek]

The gun is off center?

 

Yes, the axis of symmetry of the gun is off center so that the barrel firing is exactly in front of the center of gravity.

 

Edit: See this pic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A10WarthogFront.jpg

Edited March 1, 2010 by sobek

[ZQuickSilverZ]

I read the gun fires in the 9 o clock position. Not the 12 or 6. So its fireing off center of the gun but probably centeral to the overall aircraft layout.

[EtherealN]

AFAIK that is correct.

[Feuerfalke]

Yes, the axis of symmetry of the gun is off center so that the barrel firing is exactly in front of the center of gravity.

 

Edit: See this pic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A10WarthogFront.jpg

 

 

It is, sorry. I only read the first part of the post and hit reply. Sorry, I was a bit jumpy.

 

 

@ZQuickSilverZ:

 

The firing barrel is located on the centerline, the axis of the rotating barrels is slightly off center. I guess that's the compromise of having a gun firing from the centerline and a frontwheel that doesn't change the balance and stability during taxiing too much and still fits in the fuselage. ;)

Edited March 2, 2010 by Feuerfalke

[ZQuickSilverZ]

The fuselage of the aircraft is built around the gun.[26] For example, the nose wheel is offset to the right so that the gun's firing barrel at the 9 o'clock position is aligned on the aircraft's centerline.

 

Thats from wikipedia. According to that, the gun fires in the 9 o clock postition.

[Frederf]

Fly-by-wire in the technical sense simply means that somewhere in the path from pilot input to control surface the control information is electrical. No where in the strict definition is it required that this electrical link be digital, smart, or otherwise technologically advanced. The F-16's FCS is so much more than the bare minimum to qualify as fly-by-wire, going beyond to incorporate the notion of "interpreted intention" in between the pilot's input and the control surface movement.

 

Unless the A-10C's flight controls are strictly cable/hydraulics traceable all the way from the stick to the aileron, then the A-10C would also be fly-by-wire as well.

 

Personally, I think the 30mm cannon on the A-10 gets more than its fair share of press. It's a flashy party piece. Undoubtedly it's an effective weapon and probably used more often than rarely. However the Mk80, Paveway, and JDAM series of bombs has to be considered bread and butter.

 

If I am correctly informed the average impulse per second of the 30mm cannon is in the area of 50% of the combined powerplant output so it's of some concern. The concept of gun traversal with respect to the airframe is silly as an overwhelmingly more practical solution is an autopilot capable of turning the entire airframe onto target (say, directed by HMS).

 

Just for clarification, 50mm cannon were fitted onto some models of Ju-87 Stuka so the Future Weapons' claim that the A-10's 30mm being the biggest is well short of factual. Not that FW gets their facts right all too often.

[Blaze1]

Fly-by-wire in the technical sense simply means that somewhere in the path from pilot input to control surface the control information is electrical. No where in the strict definition is it required that this electrical link be digital, smart, or otherwise technologically advanced. The F-16's FCS is so much more than the bare minimum to qualify as fly-by-wire, going beyond to incorporate the notion of "interpreted intention" in between the pilot's input and the control surface movement.

 

Unless the A-10C's flight controls are strictly cable/hydraulics traceable all the way from the stick to the aileron, then the A-10C would also be fly-by-wire as well.

 

My understanding is that electrical signalling alone is not enough to qualify a system as being FBW. The signals must be processed between the input and the output.

[element1108]

All these "articles" on the a10 are nice, but I want some pin ups to go with the great articles ;).

[ZQuickSilverZ]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GAU-10_Drawing.jpg

 

There ya go bud a pinup. Speaking of Pin-ups anybody miss those old pin-up girl paintings they used to put on the aircraft during world war 2? I miss those. I would'nt mind having a long legged redhead in a military jacket and skirt on my A-10. Oh well days long gone.

[TKMR]

That's an awesome image! O.O