So which came first, the cannon or the aircraft?

[Fdino]

Hello. Would you like to know what is true? When researching the A-10 Thunderbolto II, some sources say that it was built around the cannon. Others say no. So which came first, the cannon or the aircraft? Thanks and very wishes.

[MigBuster]

3 hours ago, Fdino said:

Hello. Would you like to know what is true? When researching the A-10 Thunderbolto II, some sources say that it was built around the cannon. Others say no. So which came first, the cannon or the aircraft? Thanks and very wishes.

Very difficult to say for sure.....sources that use information from people on the A-X program from USAF and Fairchild should be best....but even then you get people on the program who disagree!

What would you say are your best sources?

[streakeagle]

The A-X specification kept changing. At some point, the requirement for 30mm cannon was added. Aircraft designs progressed continuously as the specification changed from turboprop to turbofan and adding the gun. Was the A-10 design significantly complete before the gun requirement was added, then modified? Or was a completely new approach used to accommodate the gun? There is a clear history of the USAF request for proposal requirements. There are examples of proposals with turboprops long before the gun requirement was added. I suspect the designs we know as the A-9 and A-10 were not finalized until after the 1970 RFPs (including the gun). Since the gun was exceptionally large, the aircraft had to be designed around it, but they were also designed around the rest of the specifications for armor, payload, maneuverability, range, loiter time, and redundancy/survivability. The gun was just one of many requirements. But its size, shape, and weight definitely affected the overall design. It is not an exaggeration to say the A-10 was built around the gun, but it was also built around the titanium "bathtub" cockpit and the widely separated pod mounted engines. It is false to believe the gun design came first, then prototype aircraft were designed around it.

[Wrench]

The chicken came first

[yakarov79]

Always took it as a figure of speech. Think of it as a poetic expression.

What sounds better, we have an aircraft, let us add a gun like on every other boring aircraft....or ok we built a muth..fkin gun... add wings and engines and let's fly it.

50 years...or half a century.  first you sound old; latter - venerable.