4/1/2023 0 Comments Tank buster planeLegends models have fixed lowered undercarriage on a display stand within a plastic blister with diorama base. For her heroic actions, she was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.Corgi Aviation Legends AA32009: Hawker Hurricane Mk II Tank Buster HV667 of 6 Sqn RAF, Libya, 1942. Amazingly enough, Campbell was able to put the plane into manual reversion and fly the crippled Hog safely back to base an hour away. To cite just one example, then-Captain (now retired USAF Colonel) Kim “K(iller)C(hick)” Campbell, during a mission over downtown Baghdad on 07 April 2003, was hit by enemy ground fire that completely knocked out her airplane’s hydraulics and damaged one engine, in addition to disabling the flight controls, landing gear & breaks, and horizontal stabilizer, not to mention leaving hundreds of holes in the airframe. And while the Warthog drivers in these latter conflicts may not have racked up the MBT kill tally that their Desert Storm predecessors did, they certainly added to the other aspect that makes the beast so legendary: its incredible durability and survivability. Since then, the A-10 has served with distinction, from Bosnia to Kosovo to Afghanistan to Libya to Iraq Part Deux (Operation Iraqi Freedom). Yes, the airplane is built around the gun. warplanes, doling out its deadly depleted uranium shells at a buzzsaw-like 4,200 rounds per minute. Still, more significantly, there’s that aforementioned “BRRRT” factor, the GAU-8A Avenger cannon, a 30mm electric Gatling gun that delivers seven times the ballistic energy per round as the 20mm M61 Vulcans carried by other U.S. What makes the Warthog so deadly? Well, for starters, there are the AGM-65 Maverick missiles. However, even before the Cold War officially ended, the Warthog would still get her baptism of fire on a far different battlefield than its designers originally envisioned: the desert sands of Iraq and Kuwait. With 20/20 hindsight, we know now that the dreaded WWIII scenario never happened, thanks to, among other things, Nixon’s aforementioned détente, the Reagan Doctrine of rollback, and Mikhail S. Therefore, the need for a tank-killing close air support (CAS) platform like the A-10 was genuine. Though Dick Nixon’s détente policy was already underway, the fear of the USSR sending its massed troop and tank formations through the Fulda Gap still weighed heavily on U.S. To give readers a sense of historical perspective about the Warthog’s roots, as noted by Guns.Com columnist Chris Eger, “Nixon was in office, Roberta Flack’s ‘First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ was on the top of the charts – which is a beautiful coincidence considering the love the public has for the A-10 – and a gallon of milk cost 52 cents.” Moreover, at this time, the Soviet Union possessed roughly 50,000 tanks, while the American M1 Abrams main battle tank (MBT) was still eight years away from debuting. So then, let’s examine just what makes this particular Birthday Girl so special. “Bob” Johnson) celebrated her 50th birthday, or as its pilots & crew chiefs ( such as the Idaho Air National Guard’s 124th Fighter Wing) and legions of fans prefer to say, its 50th “BRRRT-Day,” in humorous and reverent homage to this golden warbird’s most salient-not to mention deadliest-feature, its tank-busting 30mm cannon. Why is that? On, the Fairchild Republic A-10 Warthog (officially the Thunderbolt II, named for the original P-47 Thunderbolt of WWII, which was flown by America’s top two highest-scoring air aces of the European Theatre, Francis “Gabby” Gabreski and Robert S. And while many say this plane could not survive a war against a modern foe like China or Russia, the plane will not go away anytime soon. The A-10 Warthog is not meant to be pretty, or stealthy and clearly does not pretend to be anything than what it is: a plane designed to provide air cover and kill things like enemy armor.
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