For those unaware, the A-10’s main gun, the GAU-8 30mm autocannon, had to have an entire aircraft designed around it - the A-10 - just to have an aircraft that wouldn’t destabilize itself or shake to pieces by the force of firing the gun! So unless we’re making that drone beefy af…
Another fun fact: the recoil force of the A-10’s gun was greater than the forward thrust of the engine. If the gun fired without stopping the plane would fall out of the sky.
the recoil force of the A-10’s gun was greater than the forward thrust of the engine.
it’s more complex than this - and it’s not that the ‘thrust of the recoil was greater than the engines’ - the problem is gasses produced by the firing process reducing the engine thrust output (and sometimes choking the two giant turbofans entirely!) while simultaneously shaking the entire airframe like crazy and the forces the gun’s firing produces against the airframe (long bursts could distort the mounting points). It’ll slow the warthog down, but it wouldn’t stop it by force of motion in the opposite direction. They also did all kinds of stuff with the barrel shroud and canopy cleaner because fouling would coat the windshield and muzzle blast would blind the pilot
and sometimes not all the propellent in each 30mm shell wouldn’t be fully burned before being ingested by the engine, leading to some fun times lol. they figured it all out tho, just do relatively short bursts and an automatic-engine-restarter and it became a really awesome platform.
Another fun fact. Two items are shown. Here are the mq1 predator and the GAU 8 30 mm cannon. The mq1 weighs 1,131lbs but the cannon including all of the hydraulicsabd ammo necessary for it to function weigh 4029 lbs
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For those unaware, the A-10’s main gun, the GAU-8 30mm autocannon, had to have an entire aircraft designed around it - the A-10 - just to have an aircraft that wouldn’t destabilize itself or shake to pieces by the force of firing the gun! So unless we’re making that drone beefy af…
Another fun fact: the recoil force of the A-10’s gun was greater than the forward thrust of the engine. If the gun fired without stopping the plane would fall out of the sky.
it’s more complex than this - and it’s not that the ‘thrust of the recoil was greater than the engines’ - the problem is gasses produced by the firing process reducing the engine thrust output (and sometimes choking the two giant turbofans entirely!) while simultaneously shaking the entire airframe like crazy and the forces the gun’s firing produces against the airframe (long bursts could distort the mounting points). It’ll slow the warthog down, but it wouldn’t stop it by force of motion in the opposite direction. They also did all kinds of stuff with the barrel shroud and canopy cleaner because fouling would coat the windshield and muzzle blast would blind the pilot
and sometimes not all the propellent in each 30mm shell wouldn’t be fully burned before being ingested by the engine, leading to some fun times lol. they figured it all out tho, just do relatively short bursts and an automatic-engine-restarter and it became a really awesome platform.
https://www.twz.com/air/birth-of-brrrrrt-how-the-a-10s-avenger-cannon-went-from-terrible-to-terrifying
edited for derp
Thank you for the nuance. I was recalling a tour many years ago at Hill Airforce Base Museum talking about it, but forgot the details.
Sounds like a design flaw to me. I mean, they could’ve made the gun rear-facing.
That would have given the plane’s position away from the back-up beeping noises.
Another fun fact. Two items are shown. Here are the mq1 predator and the GAU 8 30 mm cannon. The mq1 weighs 1,131lbs but the cannon including all of the hydraulicsabd ammo necessary for it to function weigh 4029 lbs
This needs two GAU-8’s to balance out the recoil.