used to be really into the tech info back in high school, particularly aircraft and weapons/artillery. memorizing specs, differentiating the sukhoi's and the mikoyan gruevich's, following 'nam the tv show and enduring clint's firefox, arguing battle scenarios between an m1 abram vs an a-10 hog... i miss the cold war. i still smile a little when recalling reading typical grunt's gear list; "'magazine pouch'? i guess they gotta have some reading material for during down times."
A-10 thunderbolt..Nitpicking.. I know. I figure it would win.. cause I dunno how well armored the top of an Abrahms is..
In college, I did a 20-page essay on the organizational structure of the Nazi regime, including the SS. Didn't care too much about the technology, though.
i know abt the thunderbolt designation. isnt it also nicknamed warthog? or am i thinking of the m60 machine gun? a-10s have most recently been popular in mid-east skirmishes, prior to that, in falklands campaign IIRC. abrams are reputedly soft at the top. but internally lined with kevlar. but this is like more'n 10 years info.
the warthog nickname is just that. a nickname. I beleive it got it becuase of the noise the cannon makes. And seeing as it fires Depleted Uranium shells, the Abrahms kevlar lineing wouldn't stop them at all.. But yeah, they served extensively in the first gulf war, and then in the balkans.. though decidely less.
You don't by anychance have a digitial copy of that do you ? i would like to see it, if you wouldn't mind to much.
I really enjoy reading the military history, especially mongol history, chinese history, and WW2 in the pacific history.
Have you seen the great raid ? I know its a hollywoodised version of events.. but it was a pretty good movie.. Also i had heard that Clint eastwood and Steven speilburg are getting ready to work on a new WWII movie in the pacific.. or rather 2 movies.. as one of them is filmed from the American pov, and one from the Japanese pov... Both covering exactly the same events except veiwed from two different groups.. I hope the Japanese one will be subtitled.. since a Japanese director is doing it.. while Eastwood is directing the American one.
Not sure if this is true, but I heard that it was given that nickname because pilots said it was as ugly as a warthog, due to its unusual shape. I myself am a huge military aircraft nut. I'll admit, I'm not as knowledgeable as many others are, but I just love everything about military planes. From classic warbirds to the latest stealth fighters, if it has wings and explosives, I love it.
The A 10 is the Thunderbolt II. The original Thunderbolt Was a WWII fighter. The P 47, I think. It was the first Hog. The Thunderbolt II is the last in a long line of hogs. It got called the Warthog, becasue it's generally considered an ugly plane. I always thought it looked cool as hell.
yeah! nose cone mounted chain gun, external mounted engines positioned above/behind the wings to diffuse heat emission/avoid detection. i really liked its visual awkwardness. reminds me of all those ungainly looking WW1 gunships with the gun turrets.
Yeah it does.. and it can carry enough firepower to level .. well .. anything.. And your right, I did leave off the II.
What's not to love? A chain gun that can chew up a tank (and stop the plane, if fired for too long) and the ability to carry more bombs than a WWII B 17. Not to mention that it can almost turn up it's own tail pipe. (not that I'd recomend trying to use it for dog fighting.)
Oh i like em.. Very cool plane. But I think my favorite peice of military hardware is either the Great Pajandrum.. or the T-34... the first one of those was something the british cooked up to roll down the beaches of Kent onto german landing crafts, Basically a large spool normally used for steel cable.. only now its covered in TNT and containers of deisel fuel. I saw a video of it being tested at the Imperial war museam in London last year. Truely impressive.. Though I am glad it never saw service.
