I love to fly. But killing with an airplane? I don't think so. This is the A-10 Thunderbolt close air support aircraft on display at The Cradle of Aviation. It is an impressive aircraft, both in it's size, and in its capabilities. It was built here on Long Island, at Fairchild Republic Aircraft. But this skull and motto? Wow. I wonder if this was a real motto on an aircraft, or if someone dreamed it up. Maybe it came with this aircraft when it came to the museum. I was at the Cradle for an FAA safety seminar. It didn't involve killing people from aircraft, however.
All A-10 training occurs in Tucson, so they are a common sight around here, and I've had the chance for close-up inspection at the occasional air show. They are quite impressive, built around a 30mm gatling gun able to shoot armor-piercing depleted uranium shells at 60/sec! I was chatting with a pilot who described aiming over a hill, then dropping below the target's horizon and took out the target while shooting safely from behind the hill. They were on the recent kill list to retire it, but our congressman currently got a stay of execution for it, since there is nothing else deployed like it... -Dean
ReplyDelete