Crop duster == weapons platform

They stole the idea from the Cary Grant movie North by Northwest...

 

Ever seen an A10 or OV10 doing it's thing? They have a lot in common with crop dusters. I understand they are both a gas to fly.

 

That's the first thing I thought when I saw this thing...What a blast to fly. Enough wing, good friendly airfoil, plenty of power, and powerful control surfaces. An overgrown Super Cub with an attitude. I have always appreciated airplane that enjoyed flying as much as I did. I have never liked those with the razor thin Hershey bar wings and a
zillion horse power to force the airplane to do what it doesn't want to do.
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First thing that strikes me is the visibility doesn't look very good on this thing..... The A10 has a nice big bubble canopy and they OV10 has all kinds of windows.

 

I used to fly out of a field that hosted ANG A-10 drivers. They LOVED -- and I mean LOVED -- their their airplane. And not just for the gun. They said it was like driving a proper sportscar -- responsive, agile, great visibility: in all a fantastic platform. Plus, they loved the aircraft's durability.

 

Nothing a Sawzall and a bubble of Lexan won't fix.

Dusters are designed to be very surviveable when you wad one up which happens with some regularity. I wouldn't be surprised if that canopy frame was heavily reinforced much like a roll cage in a car.

 

Yeah I suppose bird strikes are a pretty regular occurrence in that line of work.

 

An ugly plane though. It's like a Subaru WRX plane.

 

So are crashes. Engine trouble at 100 ft is a bad deal. So are the everpresent power lines. Those things spend 90% of their time low and slow. In AG country seeing pieces of a wadded up AG plane all stacked up on a flatbed truck is a regular thing.

 

As a 13-14 year old kid I hung out with the crop dusters in Florida and got to fly with them and did row flagging. They were flying Travelaires and Wacos and a few Stearman C3's. They dusted lettuce and celery mostly and I saw some pretty bad wrecks when they either hit stumps that were supposed to have been removed or wires that they misjudged. After the war they flew the Stearman Model 75 and did the same things. THAT airplane can take tremendous punishment . One guy lost a prop blade on an R985, then lost the engine which departed the airplane that then crashed into the orange grove. After it hit, here comes the engine bouncing along like a basketball and hit the airplane just to the right of the cockpit thus saving the pilot from another trip somewhere. Exciting times with modified Cubs and gypsy pilots trying to make the big buck. We had a Cub come in to airport one day with a spray tank mounted where the front seat used to be. The "passenger" was riding on the wing strut where it joins the fuselage, one foot on the wheel, and hanging to the wing strut and the windshield strut. They didn't last very long.
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Looks like they took care of the visibility problem.
I imagine that would be an excellent ground support plane in TIGHT quarters.
Probably not the fastest but I bet it could hang on a target pretty good.

 

Takes a beating...

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y8GR4FDu7g[/ame]

 

One good thing. It looks like all the bird strikes will be from the rear.

I would insist on air supremacy before I flew one in combat.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

BOUNCE? Then neutral stick, a bit of throttle, and walk it down. The left wing should never have stalled. But then Monday night pilots are always perfect.

 

I think it makes a lot of sense. However, given the ubiquity of stinger missiles and RPGs, I wonder how practical it is in real world operations?

 

Don- That is why they have all the IR countermeasures on board. Does not help, though, that the thing is within range of a whole lot of guided and unguided weapons for a long time because of its slow airspeed. I would be really worried about 14.5 mm, 23 mm, 37 mm, and 57 mm optically or radar guided guns. If you are fighting against kindergardens or a 3rd world nation with no heavy MGs or AAA, great system.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

Code 3, numerous.

 

Hey, hey, hey... That hurt!!!

T
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Which brings to mind an older and probably deadlier effort back in the 80's, the Piper PA48 Enforcer.
The Enforcer is a turboprop-powered light close-support/ground-attack aircraft built by Piper Aircraft Corp. Lakeland, Fla. It is based on the well-known North American P-51 of World War II fame. By direction of Congress, the USAF evaluated the aircraft, beginning in 1983. Testing was conducted in 1984 and the Air Force decided not to order the Enforcer.

SPECIFICATIONS:
Span: 41 ft. 4 in.
Length: 34 ft. 2 in.
Height: 13 ft. 1 in.
Armament: Mixed armament includes two GE GPU 30mm gun pods, MK-82 snakeyes, Bristol GRV-7 rockets, CBU canisters and MK-20 Rockeye antitank rockets
Engine: Avco-Lycoming YT-55-L-9 turboprop of 2,445 hp
C/N:48-350001
Registration number: N481PE (no USAF serial number assigned)

PERFORMANCE:
Maximum speed: 403 mph
Range: 921 miles
Service ceiling: 25,000 ft.
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Not significantly slower than an A-10, about which we tell the Hog drivers they get bird-strikes from the rear.

Taz
Terry Phillips

 

I bet it's a blast to fly.
Old school with new power.

 

Terry, I don't know of any bunch of service types who can come up the level of wry humor that the Air Force achieves. Re the 737. I am closely following my ol' gang at Boeing and I know that they are working at high boost to come up with a new gen airplane that can beat the current 737 performance by an adequate percentage and it ain't easy. That little airplane is a marvel of efficiency and reliability and price.

 

Spasso- Affirmative, but a taxi accident looking for a place to happen. All the film of UK fighter units shows the crew chief lying on the wing while taxiing to make sure they did not hit anything on the ground. Long nose, big engine, tail dragger, equals a lot of S-turning so you can see where you are going.

Bob- With the A-10's titanium bathtub around the pilot, we also told them we knew what an A-10 simulator was. Put the pilot in a dumpster and throw rocks at it. Hog motto: We may be ugly, but at least we are slow.

Great airplane for its intended job, though. When I was a range officer in the UK, we hated to see the A-10s show up because they usually destroyed half our sonic scoring sensors. When a flight departed, it looked like someone had been out there with a plow. The furrows were over a hundred feet long.

Taz
Terry Phillips