Future of the A-10 Warthog

No reason to go to Long island. The A-10 wing replacement program is not even using Northrop-Grumman as a source.

 

That plant is now gone, replaced by a shopping center! Grumman inherited what was left of the A-10 program when Republic folded, probably because of proximity. I think that Northrop Grumman is still in charge of maintaining the drawings and supplying spares.

 

The last time I was at Hill (depot, Utah, 2010) they were replacing A-10 wings there, and other upgrades as well.

 

So who's doing the work; supplying parts... if not N-Grumman?

 

Boeing has the contract for wing replacement..

Boeing: A-10 Wing Replacement Program

 

Nicely presented!

And it looks like they need to do nose jobs next.
.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Wonder if that is from beating out the skin after the pilot bounced the refueling drogue once or twice.

 

Lots of folks can do wing replacements, sheet metal repair, or a glass cockpit like the A-10C. Building new ones from scratch is another ball of wax that makes no sense, even if the tooling was saved, which I doubt.

In the F-111 world, Congress had us build additional tail numbers in 1971-1974 in small batches, on an annual basis. So GD dug out the tooling and dutifully built the additional F-111Fs. Most of them came out crooked and did not perform nearly as well as those built in 1970 and earlier. We had two F-111Fs at the 431st TES, 70-2400 and 74-187. 400 was way faster (could actually supercruise at mach 1.05 in mil) got better fuel consumption, and required way less maintenance. When in formation, 187 always required 400 to throttle back considerably so she could keep up. Usually, we just let 187 lead and 400 could always keep up. We thought it might be the engines, so we swapped them. Made no difference, the crooked one was just slower.

Jim- Yup, knew the plant was gone. The one in Farmington, NY, too, where they built P-47s

 

Simple BDR (battle damage repair).

 

That's Farmingdale, by the way. The flight test hangars on the east side of Republic Airport are still there and house a nice little museum.

Oh, and the pizzeria in that shopping center is dynamite! I attended a model show in the museum a few years ago and they had pizza delivered from across the runway. It was better than any I've ever gotten in Atlanta!

 

Jim- Yup, Farmington just came out of the typing because I live in New Mexico.

 

Really low!

https://youtu.be/0Kgusd1rN6E

 

WOW! This gent's warthog sure gave him an exciting ride!

Air Force captain lands A-10 with no canopy, no gear

 

OK, never flew the Hog in combat, I was a "Cold Warrior", think Fulda Gap and dueling with ZSU-23-4, but loved the Hog. Got 200 hours A7-D, 1000+ A-10A, 600+ F4D, 600+F-16A, if "They" asked me for a retirement gift one more tank of gas any jet, I'd ask "Them" can I have 300+ rounds in the A-!0? If not then the Viper. Delivered the 5th Hog to Eillson back in '82 or "83 straight from the Hagerstown, MD factory. Best (fastest) Hog I ever flew, engines hadn't been detuned yet. Nothing can replace the GAU-8

 

4-ship formation from Indiana NG flew over Purdue's stadium during the pre-game this past weekend. Missed getting a pic of that, but you can just make out one setting up for landing. Pilots were honored during the game (2 were Purdue grads).
Image Unavailable, Please Login
and Purdue beat #16 Iowa on a last sec FG. Go Boilers!!

 

They probably sounded like a flight of vacuum cleaners. The S-3 Viking (that used the same engines) was nicknamed "Hoover".

 

lol They did a pretty low pass right over my head and the sound and feel was a little underwhelming, although I knew what to expect. A flight of 4 F-22's that low would have had the crowd holding hands over their ears.

 

Not loud, in that mission you don't necessarily want the bad guys to hear you coming..... In the middle east they got the nickname "whispering death".. I think that says it all...

 

Still flying.

Here's a [fulll screen] video with one painted WWII style

https://taskandpurpose.com/a-10-wwii-paint-job

 

Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

Whispering Death tag has been used on a lot of aircraft.