>>   There's a persistent urban legend that the recoil of the GAU cannon is
>> so strong that firing it for long periods of time would stop the plane.
>> While the recoil is indeed impressive, it's not, however, strong enough
>> to stop the plane (but it can slow it down significantly).
> 
> I'd never heard that one, but isn't that the gun that's fired out the 
> side of the plane while it banks to compensate for the force?

I saw one fired at an air show once, it really is awe inspiring.
I wouldn't want to be Al Qaeda with that after me, no matter
how deep the cave.

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Tim Attwood <tim### [at] anti-spamcomcastnet> wrote:
> I saw one fired at an air show once, it really is awe inspiring.
> I wouldn't want to be Al Qaeda with that after me, no matter
> how deep the cave.

  Iraqi troops in both the first and second Gulf Wars described the A-10's
cannon as a laser because of the addition of tracers every 20 rounds.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 06:40:33 +0200, Chambers  
<Ben### [at] gmailcom_no_underscores> wrote:
> Warp wrote:
>>   There's a persistent urban legend that the recoil of the GAU cannon is
>> so strong that firing it for long periods of time would stop the plane.
>> While the recoil is indeed impressive, it's not, however, strong enough
>> to stop the plane (but it can slow it down significantly).
>
> I'd never heard that one, but isn't that the gun that's fired out the  
> side of the plane while it banks to compensate for the force?

No. The gun is mounted off-centre, but the firing barrel is always along  
the centreline of the plane.


-- 
FE

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Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> clipka <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> > The Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II's GAU-8/A machine cannon, when fired, produces
> > more recoil thrust (45 kN) than a single of the plane's two turbofan engines (40
> > kN each)...
>
>   In order to not to get a misleading picture, a bit of context should be
> given: While the recoil is indeed 45 kN, the maximum combined output of the
> A-10 engines is 82.6 kN.

Hm... I guess I did mention that it's 40 kN per engine, and 2 engines...


>   There's a persistent urban legend that the recoil of the GAU cannon is
> so strong that firing it for long periods of time would stop the plane.
> While the recoil is indeed impressive, it's not, however, strong enough
> to stop the plane (but it can slow it down significantly).

Depends on how strong the aerodynamic drag at minimum speed is. If it was
equivalent to ca. 35 kN, that would come close enough to stopping the plane for
practical purposes ;P (though I doubt it; the actual slowing down of the plane
seen when firing is most likely just due to the pilot not bothering to readjust
the throttle accordingly; I bet they're not flying anywhere near 100% power when
in a 30 degrees attack dive...)


> > Fire power, literally. That's what I'd call brute force.
>
>   In certain communities the term is "more dakka".

Is that "dakka" as in "rat-tat-tat"?

But these things don't go "rat-tat-tat", nor "dakka dakka" - they're more like a
loud, high-pitched humming at 3900 Hz (something like b'''' for the musicians
out there)...


> > (Then again, that's what that whole ugly thing was designed for.)
>
>   Ugly? Certainly not. It's beautiful. Impressive. Awesome. :)

Impressive? Beyond doubt. Beautiful? Uh... no, not really :P


>   This photo shows the size of the thing:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:GAU-8_meets_VW_Type_1.jpg

Yeah, that shows pretty well why the thing is not called a "gun" but a
"cannon"...

That's basically all the A-10's purpose: Bring that thing up into the air, aim
it at one of the bad guys, and play that song in b''''. Yeah, and drop a few
bombs while you're there anyway.

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clipka <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> >   In certain communities the term is "more dakka".

> Is that "dakka" as in "rat-tat-tat"?

> But these things don't go "rat-tat-tat", nor "dakka dakka" - they're more like a
> loud, high-pitched humming at 3900 Hz (something like b'''' for the musicians
> out there)...

"Dakka: Ork slang for rapid fire capability, based on the onomatopoeia for
automatic guns shooting. You need moar of it. No exceptions."

  (It's a Warhammer 40000 reference.)

> That's basically all the A-10's purpose: Bring that thing up into the air, aim
> it at one of the bad guys, and play that song in b''''. Yeah, and drop a few
> bombs while you're there anyway.

  The weapon has been described like this:

"This is the kind of gun they used to put planes on. It wasn't a case
of 'Oh, we got this jet fighter, it kinda needs something besides
missiles and bombs and shit, let's strap this thing on'. NO. It was a
case of a guy making a gun SO awesome, that he just stepped back, and
said, 'This shit needs to fly'. And everyone else is like, 'You cant
make a gun fly!'. And the first guy is all like, 'Fuck you, yes I
can. I will strap a plane to this gun.' And everyone's like, 'You mean
strap the gun to a plane?' And the first guy is like, 'No, man. I am
strapping the plane to the gun. The plane is an accessory.' And then
everyone's minds were blown. Like, there was some serious mind blowing
going on there. Ears were bleeding. Synapses just went an committed
suicide because it was so awesome."

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Warp wrote:
>   Iraqi troops in both the first and second Gulf Wars described the A-10's
> cannon as a laser because of the addition of tracers every 20 rounds.

Sort of like this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtU-Q_ClkwY

(Altho that's a different gun.)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "We'd like you to back-port all the changes in 2.0
    back to version 1.0."
   "We've done that already. We call it 2.0."

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Even better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Oc-xbpy-OI

Shows the ammo and tells some more stats, too, but no cool visual effects 
except seeing the targets blow up.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "We'd like you to back-port all the changes in 2.0
    back to version 1.0."
   "We've done that already. We call it 2.0."

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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> (Altho that's a different gun.)

  Yeah, slightly different. I don't think the helicopter would be able to
even lift the GAU-8, much less fire it. :P

  But same idea, I suppose. (Maybe the bullets from the GAU-8 travel even
faster, giving even more the visual impression of a "laser".)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> Even better.

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Oc-xbpy-OI

> Shows the ammo and tells some more stats, too, but no cool visual effects 
> except seeing the targets blow up.

  The Goalkeeper CIWS also uses the GAU-8 as its weapon. Some cool videos
can be found at youtube.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Chambers <Ben### [at] gmailcom_no_underscores> wrote:
> >   There's a persistent urban legend that the recoil of the GAU cannon is
> > so strong that firing it for long periods of time would stop the plane.
> > While the recoil is indeed impressive, it's not, however, strong enough
> > to stop the plane (but it can slow it down significantly).
>
> I'd never heard that one, but isn't that the gun that's fired out the
> side of the plane while it banks to compensate for the force?

Many fighter planes feature a gun mounted off-axis, but that's not as dramatic
because we're talking about 20mm M61 Vulcan cannons there, which produce much
lower recoil power, and has a role of a backup weapon anyway, so the benefit of
not having to pay much attention to the cannon in the plane's design outweigh
that of having an on-axis cannon.

The A-10's cannon, however, is mounted only slightly off-axis - and only for one
single reason: So that the one barrel of seven, which is currently firing, *is*
perfectly on-axis.

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