Why is the A10 Warthog gun so small?

I guess compared to the 16inch guns on an Iowa class battleship, whi h fire VW sized projectiles, it is small.

 

The gun is not all that big.

The magazine....now that's big.

 

Over Baghdad

From the archives: A-10 urban CAS over Baghdad in 2003 ~ Warthog News

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_2Vz_x1LdM[/ame]
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A gun with wings. Works for me...

 

I remember reading that the airplane was actually designed around the 6000 pound weapon system. I talked to an A-10 pilot at an airshow in the 80's and he said that if the weapon was fired at full rate, the muzzle gases snuffed out the engines. Hence the strakes on the sides of the forward fuselage. I simply cannot understand the reluctance to put 1000 of these on line. Well, maybe 300. In my mind they are an incredible weapon. I would also give anything to meet Capt. Kim Campbell, who in my eyes is one good looking dame and an unbelievable A-10 pilot. In WW2 she would have been called a HOT ROCK.
I hate getting old!

 

when the guns fired the plane slows down

 

..to every action,an opposite reaction..🤓...cheers,RE

 

When the gun fires, it feels like the plane STOPS in mid-air.

 

Recoil from the gun is about the same as one engine 9000 lbs of thrust. I don't really remember the gun actually slowing the plane down but you're pretty focused on hitting the target. Also most of the time it's only shot in 1-2 second bursts.

 

CAS is not 'cool' enough for the USAF.

 

My late brother-in-law flew B-25's and B-26's in the south Pacific area and he said that the 75mm cannon DID severely jolt the airplane when fired as did the gun nose version that had 12 forward firing cal.50's . One thing for sure was that the destruction was total for a few seconds. The airframes suffered from the recoil of the cannon and the .50's and extended use was not the norm. He also said that he preferred the Martin B-26 to fly in action because it was so tough but he preferred the B-25 for tooling around...like normal things, para-frag missions and strafing. This guy also flew T-6's in the Korean thing as an artillery spotter and he said that the airplane could also take a lot of punishment from small arms fire. He sadly died from alcoholism without any recognition from the military for what he did.

 

Perhaps the epitome of the gun-nose bomber were the later A-26B Invaders. They had 8 .50s in the nose and 6 more in the outer wings, fighter-plane style. In addition, the upper turret could be locked in forward-firing position by the pilot and fired by him. That's 16 .50s all firing in unison! (And I'll bet that some enterprising soul strapped additional guns to the side of the forward fuselage, similar to the style seen on B-25s and B-26s. If so, the number of guns might have been as high as 20.)