8 ms·
While off topic, i found this interesting bit of information on the a10's gun wiki page. "The recoil force of the GAU-8/A[16] is 10,000 pounds-force (45 kN),[3
by jug6ernaut 13y ago
While off topic, i found this interesting bit of information on the a10's gun wiki page.
"The recoil force of the GAU-8/A[16] is 10,000 pounds-force (45 kN),[3] which is slightly more than the output of one of the A-10's two TF34 engines (9,065 lbf / 40.3 kN each).[17] While this recoil force is significant, in practice cannon fire only slows the aircraft a few miles per hour in level flight."
The gun firing produces more force through recoil on the plane then is produced by one of the plane's engines. That is simply amazing.
Edit: The guns wiki page(it has a wiki page).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger
- Avenger42 13y agoIt's also mentioned in an XKCD "what if": https://what-if.xkcd.com/21/ https://what-if.xkcd.com/21/ > The GAU-8 Avenger fires up to sixty one-pound bullets a second. It produces almost five tons of recoil force, which is crazy considering that it’s mounted in a type of plane (the A-10 “Warthog”) whose two engines produce only four tons of thrust each. If you put two of them in one aircraft, and fired both guns forward while opening up the throttle, the guns would win and you’d accelerate backward. > To put it another way: If I mounted a GAU-8 on my car, put the car in neutral, and started firing backward from a standstill, I would be breaking the interstate speed limit in less than three seconds.
- tomp 13y ago> To put it another way: If I mounted a GAU-8 on my car, put the car in neutral, and started firing backward from a standstill, I would be breaking the interstate speed limit in less than three seconds. More likely, you would have a cabrio in 1.62 seconds.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- JohnBooty 13y agoWhen you (jokingly, obviously) mention mounting it on a car, does this imply that you think the gun is mounted on the A-10? When we look at cutaway drawings of the A-10, we see that it's almost more like the A-10 is mounted on the GAU-8 Avenger. Seriously, it's a pretty major part of the fuselage! http://www.foodman123.com/cut42.jpg http://www.foodman123.com/cut42.jpg http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5306/v38136usa10fairchildrep.jpg http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/5306/v38136usa10fairchild...
- ilovecookies 13y agoThe next part is the funniest though... As good as this gun would be as a rocket pack engine, the Russians built one that would work even better. The Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-6-30 weighs half as much as the GAU-8 and has an even higher fire rate. Its thrust-to-weight ratio approaches 40, which means if you pointed one at the ground and fired, not only would it take off in a rapidly expanding spray of deadly metal fragments, but you would experience 40 gees of acceleration. This is way too much. In fact, even when it was firmly mounted in an aircraft, the acceleration was a problem: [T]he recoil … still had a tendency to inflict damage on the aircraft. The rate of fire was reduced to 4,000 rounds a minute but it didn't help much. Landing lights almost always broke after firing … Firing more than about 30 rounds in a burst was asking for trouble from overheating … But if you somehow braced the human rider, made the craft strong enough to survive the acceleration, wrapped it in an aerodynamic shell, and made sure it was adequately cooled... ... with a GSH-6-30, you could jump mountains.
- logfromblammo 13y agoUsed for propulsion, the GAU-8 would run out of "fuel" after only 18 seconds, and would burn out its barrels after 5 minutes.
- beaker52 13y agoGuns producing more recoil than an aircraft's powertrain is nothing new. In WW2 fighters would be slowed when firing larger calibre weapons, noticeably impacting airspeed, especially with repeated firing. http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/can-gun-recoil-really-slow-fighter-38864.html http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/can-gun-recoil-rea...
- QuotedForTruth 13y agoThere is a difference between just slowing the craft and producing recoil force on the same order as the engines. If a plane is flying at a constant speed, then its in equilibrium. The engines are producing an equal amount of thrust to the amount of drag on the plane. Any recoil force will upset this and slow the plane down. This doesnt mean that they are producing more force than the powertrain. The A10 doesnt do this either of course. It produces more recoil force than one engine, but not both.
- stcredzero 13y agoGuns producing more recoil than an aircraft's powertrain is nothing new. Yes, but AFAIK, the A-10 is the only plane that was designed by starting with a BFG, then building a plane around it.
- auctiontheory 13y agoUpvoted for the elegant use of "BFG."
- stcredzero 13y agoSometimes "elegant" == "obvious"
- dylanrw 13y agoYou are forgetting the Bell P-39 Aircobra and P-63 King Cobra, both airframes designed around their cannon.
- 13y ago
- callmeed 13y agoI remember seeing the gun at air shows as a kid. It was fascinating.
- skywhopper 13y agoThe A-10 is a truly amazing airplane, in large part due to the main gun, and has proved its usefulness again and again in real combat situations. Its extended air-to-ground capabilities (which are the vast majority of our air power needs in modern warfare) are unmatched by any other plane or chopper on the armed forces, and for all that it was a remarkably inexpensive plane to build. But despite all that, no new A-10s have been produced in 20 years, they're being retired at the rate of two each month, and the Air Force wants to replace them with the debacle that is the F-35.
- ahelwer 13y agoThe A-10 is extremely vulnerable to man-portable air defense systems (MANPADs), which are difficult to spot and nearly impossible to avoid at the low altitudes within which the A-10 best performs. MANPADs are more and more common on the modern battlefield, and the supply exploded after the 2011 Libyan Civil War. Furthermore, the GAU-8, while an impressive weapon, doesn't hold its own against any tank built within the last twenty years. This leaves the A-10 as a slow, unstealthy delivery platform for AGM-65 Maverick missiles and JDAMs, a role better performed by higher-performance aircraft. I say all that as a huge fan of the A-10c, with many hours spent in the DCS sim. People seem to get bizarrely hyperbolic over the capabilities of this plane, but it's really a dinosaur.
- stcredzero 13y agoThe A-10 is extremely vulnerable to man-portable air defense systems (MANPADs), which are difficult to spot and nearly impossible to avoid at the low altitudes within which the A-10 best performs. How about building a ground support platform that can deal with this? Apparently, the Army has tried with helicopters with instrument pods above their rotors, so they can target enemies from behind cover. Perhaps the solution will be many small drones taking the place of one manned aircraft.
- Warhawg01 13y agoA-10s have a missile warning system that is tied directly to the flare dispenser.
- carstimon 13y agoThis reminded me of driving the tanks in the video game Grand Theft Auto, Vice City. If you wanted to go faster, a good option was to turn the turret backwards and fire.
- ekianjo 13y agoThis part is interesting too : The A-10 engines were initially susceptible to flameout when subjected to gases generated in the firing of the gun. When the GAU-8 is being fired, the smoke from the gun can make the engines stop, and this did occur during initial flight testing. Gun exhaust is essentially oxygen-free, and is certainly capable of causing flame-outs of gas turbines. The A-10 engines now have a self-sustaining combustion section. When the gun is fired the igniters come on to reduce the possibility of a flame-out.