New A-10!

OK now that i have your attention...

Like many, i was dismayed to hear of the exit of the A-10 and wondered how that capability hole would be filled...
Get a load of this sucker..! Super A-10.




I'm not sure how far along this design (and others) has come, but at least a signal that the capability will be kept. (and upgraded)

 

I hope this will include the A-10 UAV...

 

Gosh that's slightly funny...I have a number of favourite Russian jets...they don't always get it right but sometimes they do! One of them, since i was a kid, was/is the SU-25 Close Air Support aircraft nicknamed the "Frog foot"...Check it out. The thing is...this has been around since 1975!



And i don't see a cannon on your above photo...is it, can it be classed as an A-10 without the Brrrp!? The wing has been placed above instead of below the fuselage...the engines placed underneath giving a better heat profile from below and zero protection from small arms fire...As usual for an American aircraft the cockpit is/looks super spacious (unnecessary).


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The air force early on didn't want the A10 they thought it was unnecessary and wanted more multi role aircraft, but the A10 proved it was the best ground attack aircraft we had. Too bad they only built a small number as many countries wanted it. Rumors were they destroyed the tooling and couldn't build more. For a plane they thought little of it has done its job far better and far longer than most. Yes I've seen a number of replacement designs but so far nothing that looks like it is a suitable replacement as yet. They have one that looks like a combo f22 A10 that looks promising but it's still a developing prototype. Like everything is going stealth these days having the angled fuselage and wings. New materials, always going to carbon fiber on lots of stuff and reenforced expoxy. What next a high poly super strength extrusion. Like make a giant mold and infection molding like a giant model kit, lol. Like they had to make those huge mold template machines to make those huge wing panels for the f35. The technologies we had to develope and special machinery to build the f35 was one of the reasons for the huge cost increase. I wonder how many pressings that mold is good for before it wears out and needs to be replaced. Like steel molds Google for hundreds of thousands a stainless steel mold good for a million. Testors f19 a million press from a stainless steel mold they actually had to make a second mold and another run. Too bad the whole thing was a pure hoax a con. Saying they got drawings oh the real thing, the air force later releases real photos and the following year when testers tried to release their Russian stealth plane sales were low as every body suspected another fantasy plane which it was. Wasn't even close but I guess if your into scifi it would make a good scifi model. I kept my f19 to convert into a scifi space ship,lol, I think it was 1/48 scale the original model. Got a bunch in 1/144 scale for like two bucks each going to use them for some futuristic fighters, should be interesting.

 

I can see one development that would have a real effect...electric engines...much quieter and minimal heat signature...They are coming.

 

If I remember the fly off competition where they chose the A10 the competitor looked like the su25 and many say the Russians modeled their plane after the other. They felt it was an easier aircraft to build and suit their needs. It is funny how the Russians have to build something to counter what we have, many time looking just like ours but bigger like the blackjack looks just like our b1 but bigger. The AN 224/225 basically a copy of our C5. That saved the C5 the wing design was supposed to be revolutionary but it was a new tech and not really proven, the wing was not what they hoped it needed to be strengthened. The wings were showing fractures sooner that expected. The Air Force was going to give up on them as it was going to cost hundreds of millions to rebuild them. The the Russians came out with their ANs with our wing design and they seemed to work fine. Well we couldn't let the Russians get s jump on us so the wing was reworked they brought the planes in saying we were upgrading them and not mention the wing fatigue. All through aviation history we have had a lot of plane that mirror Russian aircraft. But both sides also have had their unique planes as well. Like the iconic mig 21 we were building delta wing planes as well as other western countries the Russians had to build their own delta but change up a few things like give them a conventional tail saying the plane had better control response. Wonder what they had to say about the mirage out dogfighting them without a tail. They seemed to maneuver well without the horizontal stabilizers. These days Russian planes look a lot more like western designs again they even taken to copying a lot of our components as we have always managed to build things smaller and lighter. Inspections of downed Russian aircraft in Arab hands showed they have been copying a lot of our components control actuators and others. I don't really understand why they can duplicate our micro technology as the Chinese seem to been copying our tech fairly well.

 

Love the built in pilots ladder, the high wing and lower engine mounting makes me think of the su25 more than a A10. Thought the high engine mounting was to help scatter the heat signature guess not an issue anymore.

 

I know there trying to build new engines but how would you refuel, like the energy cells would use capacitor technology that charge up instantly you have a plane with energy banks that hook up and transfer the charge to the plane?? Capacitors was a tech that they were looking into as a way to recharge electric cars as even lithium cells take time to recharge. One idea was for power cell stations had cells on chargers on shelves ready to go you come in they swap cells. You get going with a fresh power pack and your depleted one gets put on a recharger that takes an hour to fully recharge or at least if these new cells and chargers work the way they say they will. Too bad it can't be like scifi they pull our a nuclear power cell on a commercial flight and plug in a new one. I don't think we have actually produced a working nuclear power cell although I think there's been research looking into it back in the 70/80s but I think they have gone into other technologies for power cells. Like wasn't that ultra light that flew record distances using electric motors. Had to do it twice on its first flight it almost made it but because it was so light and the early electric motors didn't have a lot of power a strong wind pushed it down the pilot couldn't pull up and crashed the plane was wrecked just short of the runway and so they built a new one with newer improved electric motors. Electric motors have advanced a lot over the years lower input with higher outputs for greater power economy. I would be interesting to see if they can build an engine electric that can match the thrust of a jet fuel engine, but there has been a lot of development on the small private plane market though the cost for such has been extremely high as the motors are new and very expensive once new motors are perfected and massed produced I think a practablity in its use will grow.
Has there been any advancements in electric motor use in any type of large aircraft as yet?

 

Love to see any new developments the best I've seen was a small plane maybe the size of a small Learjet but with more conventional straight wings with two pull and two push props. The props looked pretty good sized the motors must have been able to produce a lot of power but it didn't mention the range and what type of power cell configuration it used.

 

Lol, had to lookup what's up in the electric plane tech. Wow they have progressed new light weight materials and fan duct engines on Lear jet type aircraft. All on lithium power cells but they say that there's new developements in power cell technology that might revolutionize the industry. I still think the capacitor tech seem a good tech they just have to solve the discharge problem. A capacitor charges instantly but it also discharges instantly a company was trying to create a way were the capacitors can discharge at a much slower controlled rate. They supposedly could do so under lab conditions but not consistently. Well hope they make it work it could revolutionize power cells not just for planes or cars but the whole construction industry.

 

For RC hobbyists they make electric jets EDF (electric ducted fans) that deliver good performance. Sooo, it should be possible to upscale, but as has been mentioned an electrical power source that delivers high output with good enough capacity to allow for acceptable range is the limiting factor.

FREEWING / MOTIONRC F-14 TOMCAT W/ 5000 ADMIRAL LIPOS at SEFF 2019 GRASS FIELD DEMO BY: RCINFORMER - YouTube

 

Can you see this is in an A-10 configuration? Electric...

 

Yeah but models are not the real thing a light weight formed body vs a jet weighting thousands of pounds having to carry a couple thousand pounds of bombs or missiles. At the nearby mile square park they had the old USMC emergency helicopter field a small black topped triangle they used for touch and goes when they were doing flight training. They turned it over to the public and a local RC club took it over and made it into an RC plane park. They had one of the model masters RC contests large scale built from scratch planes the models were huge and built from scale plans. They had a f4 dual induct fan plane it had flown the first day they said but had developed problems and was with drawn from the flight competition. Too bad I really wanted to see it fly. They had a few single engine jets that flew but these were gas induct fan engines. They were still great to see fly. The most impressive was a huge C130 the plane was big and you could easily see thru the windscreen and see two pilot figures what was really impressive was most of the planes sound like model planes that high pitch sound the C130 when it flew overhead you could hear the oohs and ahs as the plane drummed over it sounded like a really plane. The announcer expanded that some of the planes to sound more realistic had special mufflers that made the engine noise deeper. Watching these things take off and land was great made me want to get into RC, but I was thinking ships there lots cheaper they said all those planes were several hundred to a thousand dollars worth of parts and fabrication. Whew a bit pricey for me my big project will be an RC carrier with a full deck of planes in take off mode and with wings folded for deck storage I think a carrier with a deck load of wildcats, dauntless , and corsairs would look awesome but can't decide on what class yet. Thinking a escort to start then later a Yorktown class or Essex long hull I want to build it so I can open the deck and show the lower hanger. Have planes stored and do the deck support and have planes hung up in the support frames. Can't decide if I should build a hull from bulk plastic from paragon plastics been buying my bulk plastic from them for years they have new plastic and a box they toss cuttings in and sell by the pound got a lot of great plastic for making my 1/700 ships my Arizona that got a lot of good write ups when I did navalworks was built from thick plastic sheets then I added all details first by making plastic details the ones that were few not bad but the ones I needed to go all over the ship I made like four to six then coasted the details in quantity then super glued them in place. I wish I had been able to get a copy of that resin Liberty kit it was far better in detail than the plastic one unfortunately the guy discontinued it plus during one of the remold inns he appeared fly didn't prepare it right and it got stuck and damaged it getting it out he tried to fix it but the casts after that showed the damage. Too bad I hope to make a new cast as detailed as that one was. Still working on my hogs. Trying to still find good drawings for the gunnery decks get the shape and layout right. Hard to tell from angled pictures. I'm sure il find some some where floating dry dock or blueprint.com.

looks kewl I think I've seen that one. Still be interesting to see how it developed. Like that nose gat on the grey one.

 

Hey CAC, was researching ships again and found an article about Darwin. The Japanese sent two carrier forces to wip out Darwin harbor. The first wave was engaged by a air patrol of five kittyhawks, kitty was right they didn't have a chance and four were shot down another five that had been up had landed to refuel and unable to engage. The planes bombed a number of ships mostly merchantmen killed a number of dock workers and severely damaged the wharf blasting away the span connecting to the shore and stranding men on the intact part of the wharf. Over the next few months tha Japanese attacked the harbor numerous times fighter wing protecting drawin lost 44 planes but says only 17 to enemy action the rest I guess to ground attack or mishaps. However fighter wing claimed 63 enemy aircraft mostly with their spitfires. The Japanese soon gave up their losses racking up. One thing about the Japanese they didn't have hundreds of replacement craft on escort carriers to replace losses. The thing the Us navy counted on, the Japanese did not have a way to replace losses at sea we did and we built lots of those escort carriers to carry replacement planes our carriers never ran short of aircraft and when an escort got low they went back for more the escort carriers made a huge impact on the war on both oceans keeping the big carriers supplied in the pacific and flying anti sub patrols in the Atlantic.

Is Darwin where there suppose to be a number of British and Dutch seaplanes sunk in the harbor or is that another harbor as the Japanese attacked a number of harbors all along the norther coast. They had a show I think on josh gates they were looking for one of the Dutch planes thought they found one but it turned out to be a Sunderland and not documented or at least not on their records they got as much info on the wreck then reported it to the local authorities to look into. I like Josh Gates either finding lost wrecks that are known or finding wrecks no one knew about like that avenger they found one lost near the coronados but we're trying to find the one that none of the crew was recovered unfortunately they didn't find it still looking I hope they find it one day and return the lost airmen. They also found a unreported sunken fishing boat and reported it to the coast guard so it might clear up any missing boat reports from way back as they figured the boat had been down there for years. Lol, at first josh thought they had found the lost avenger till he found a toilet and said I don't think avengers had a toilet, lol.

 

wow looks good what city is that down there got some big skyscrapers

 

The carrier group was the same that attacked Pearl Harbour a couple of months before…Same ships, same aircraft.

 

Well they got those guys in the end, I'm sure the imperial navy was in a panic after losing four of their best carriers and not much on the slips to replace them forcing them to build some light carriers by coveting hulls of ships they really couldn't spare but they had little choice. Japan's steel situation was so critical they tried stretching the steel by adding in things that were not compatible as a result guns made from this steel blew apart. And who knows we're else they used this cheap bad steel. The Japanese were fast running out of resources they were worse off than Germany wonder where the Germans were stealing their steel wonder if they tore up tracks they didn't need to recycle the steel and any old equipment. Wonder if they had steel and aluminum drives like the US. Every town in the US competed against others to raise metal for the war effort pics of mountains of metal steel or aluminum are shown in a number of photos showing that Americans fully supported the war effort. From kids sacrificing there bikes to women starting victory gardens to save on rations the canning companies the glass jar industry was cranking out mason jars like no tomorrow and mason jars are still number one for home canning,lol, still funny the call it canning but most think of canning as the tin or steel cans not glass. My sisters buy bunches of the small six to eight ounce jars for home made jams and pickles, Japanese style pickles. My sister jams are really good had a neighbor that use to give us jams all the time problem was she never labeled anything had no idea what they were so we usually didn't eat them, lol, too bad I'm sure they were good but I guess that unknown factor, lol. Hmmm, now I'm thinking pickles for a snack hmmm, home made or clausen.

 

Which was my point as to; "Sooo, it should be possible to upscale, but as has been mentioned an electrical power source that delivers high output with good enough capacity to allow for acceptable range is the limiting factor."
Those RC batteries are rated in mA, so in the video I posted the guy was using a 5000mA battery he was getting that performance off of 5amps. You can plop a 5500mA in the same plane and increase performance. More weight would require higher output, longer flight time would require higher capacity. The engines could be upscaled to produced higher output, but the limiting factor is battery technology. My post was in reference to your comment on electric engine technology. Just a few years ago the EDF did not exist, RC jets had to use real miniature fuel powered jet engines or propeller engines. Now, EDF's are ubiquitous and constantly getting more powerful and more efficient. It should also be noted that propeller driven, electric motor powered, RC aircraft also use lightweight airframes, because electric motors at present do not produce the same output as internal combustion engines. Again, this is more related to inadequate battery capability instead of inherent limitations on electric engines.

Here is an RC jet with real gas turbine engines:
twin turbine F-14 tomcat rc jet - YouTube

Here is an RC aircraft with a real IC radial engine:
FIRST RUN UP - MOKI 150cc 5 CYLINDER RADIAL FOURSTROKE - 1/4 SCALE MEISTER ZERO ZEKE - 2019 - YouTube