Author Topic: AC-130U Spooky  (Read 1137 times)

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rangerrebew

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Oceander

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Re: AC-130U Spooky
« Reply #1 on: July 07, 2014, 02:00:29 pm »
those things are cool!

Offline massadvj

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Re: AC-130U Spooky
« Reply #2 on: July 07, 2014, 02:05:58 pm »

rangerrebew

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Re: AC-130U Spooky
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2014, 11:31:41 am »
I was watching a military channel last night and they were talking about the 5 weapons that strike the most fear in people who fall under their attack and spooky was numero uno.

Offline EC

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Re: AC-130U Spooky
« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2014, 07:42:19 pm »
What were the other 4? Curious now.
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rangerrebew

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Re: AC-130U Spooky
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2014, 08:57:05 pm »
One was a British Tank, another was an Israeli helicopter, a French jet, the other  I didn't see because I was taking an Obama.

Offline Chieftain

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Re: AC-130U Spooky
« Reply #6 on: July 10, 2014, 09:37:04 pm »
I was watching a military channel last night and they were talking about the 5 weapons that strike the most fear in people who fall under their attack and spooky was numero uno.

You gotta wonder what any kind of extended ops did to that airframe.  It's fine to pound targets from the air, but I'll bet the airframes got the shit pounded out of 'em on a regular basis.  Nothing could withstand all that repeated recoil and not crack eventually.  Groundfire was probably the least threat these things faced, and I'm betting a couple of hundred cannon rounds did more damage to the aircraft airframe than any direct hit with a rifle bullet ever could.

The guys who fixed these things for a living could share a few tales over a cold beer....

 :beer:

Offline EC

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Re: AC-130U Spooky
« Reply #7 on: July 10, 2014, 09:59:34 pm »
I used to fly Mi-24's. Finest gunship ever made, bar none, and don't go pushing your Apaches on me. They only carry 3, the 24 carries 10 plus the same loadout, and it can survive a serious hit without after market parts.

But yep - recoil damage to the airframe is brutal on most aircraft. We'd get warned on some of the birds not to use the cannon unless it were an emergency (and that were only .50 cal.). You could hear the frame creaking in complaint. One guy - not on my flight - actually deformed the frame enough to pop out two of the windows in the loading hatch. Must have been an interesting ride for the poor sods in the back!

Think the only beast that simply won't fail is the Warthog. The gun is not attached to the airframe itself, but to two huge and heavy steel rails. Spreads out the stresses, or something like that, instead of localizing them on smaller mounting points.
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Offline Chieftain

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Re: AC-130U Spooky
« Reply #8 on: July 10, 2014, 10:27:03 pm »
I used to fly Mi-24's. Finest gunship ever made, bar none, and don't go pushing your Apaches on me. They only carry 3, the 24 carries 10 plus the same loadout, and it can survive a serious hit without after market parts.

But yep - recoil damage to the airframe is brutal on most aircraft. We'd get warned on some of the birds not to use the cannon unless it were an emergency (and that were only .50 cal.). You could hear the frame creaking in complaint. One guy - not on my flight - actually deformed the frame enough to pop out two of the windows in the loading hatch. Must have been an interesting ride for the poor sods in the back!

Think the only beast that simply won't fail is the Warthog. The gun is not attached to the airframe itself, but to two huge and heavy steel rails. Spreads out the stresses, or something like that, instead of localizing them on smaller mounting points.

When the Soviets were in Afghanistan, the jihadis used to claim they were not afraid of the Russians, but they were afraid of their helicopters...

As I understand it, the A-10 airframe was literally designed around the gun specifically because of the massive recoil.  I got to look at one close up at NAS Norfolk once...got right up in the wheelwells and took a peek inside at the cannon service panels that they had open.  Amazing! 

The plane uses some incredible amounts of titanium alloy for structural members.  Each engine is encased in a titanium shell and the entire ejection seat sits in a "titanium bathtub" that is also a major structural component.

During the first Gulf War a warthog took a SAM hit on the right inboard leading edge of the wing and blew everything off all the way back to the frickin' spar.  The pilot managed to fly it back to Saudi Arabia and land it with that level of damage.  I'm sure that was the last landing that plane ever make, but it proved it's almost impossible to shoot one down.....

« Last Edit: July 10, 2014, 10:28:30 pm by Chieftain »

Offline EC

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Re: AC-130U Spooky
« Reply #9 on: July 10, 2014, 10:38:55 pm »
I love them!

Only been up in one once, with the usual "touch the stick and you die" warning. It were a straight swap - I got to hitch with the pilot, he got to hitch with me. You know the deal, bored and we had some spare fuel. But seeing one of them heading over your head at a height that would give your hair a blow dry, then basically removing a piece of landscape never gets old.

Though we do have a joke about the pilots - they are the ones considered way too insane to train as astronauts.
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