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The Air Force wanted to retire the A-10 in spite of the fact that they had nothing that could do close air support as well as the A-10. I suspect the motive was more money for the flying money black hole F-35. Congress forced the Air Force' hand and extended the A-10's lifetime to 2020 or later.

I was also aware of that. I guess they figured that the Army and Marines were already providing ground support with their Apaches, and Super Cobras ( talk about an ancient platform).

I'm glad to hear that congress pulled their ear. It's an awesome plane for what it is.
 
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The Air Force wanted to retire the A-10 in spite of the fact that they had nothing that could do close air support as well as the A-10. I suspect the motive was more money for the flying money black hole F-35. The Marine Corpse forced the Air Force' hand and extended the A-10's lifetime to 2020 or later.

The Marines politely informed the Air Force and Congress that A-10 would have to pried from their cold, dead hands.
 
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How did we get here? Oh, never mind, I kinda dig the old school fin art. So the Jar Heads told the Air Force to keep the A-10? Was it because of the poster? I'd salute that. So back to Joint Tactical Air Control, any progress?
 
So the Jar Heads told the Air Force to keep the A-10?

No. The marines were going to keep their A-10s whether the AirForce did or not. They also had no plans to defund their fleet of A-10s.

The forcing of the hand comes when you have a service that will fund an air frame that becomes a LOT more expensive to maintain in such small numbers.

The whole thing became moot when they were employed in Desert Storm and Desert Shield. They fly overhead and pop Russian tanks like they are moths in a bug zapper.

Now there has even been noise about making another. Lighter, tougher, more powah!
 
No. The marines were going to keep their A-10s whether the AirForce did or not. They also had no plans to defund their fleet of A-10s.

The forcing of the hand comes when you have a service that will fund an air frame that becomes a LOT more expensive to maintain in such small numbers.

The whole thing became moot when they were employed in Desert Storm and Desert Shield. They fly overhead and pop Russian tanks like they are moths in a bug zapper.

Now there has even been noise about making another. Lighter, tougher, more powah!
I did some Google based research and didn't find anything that suggested that the Marine Corps flew A-10s. The airframe and landing gear wasn't designed for carrier landings. The wings don't fold , so it can't easily be crammed in the below deck storage. Without the folding wing, there is less available space and that translates into less aircraft that can be carried. It seems that every thing the Marines fly is carrier compatible.
 
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6FAF6210-5888-419B-86D2-3DCE81229451_zpsjri4l1ir.jpg

The fins and sharp lines are really doing it for me with the front valence. Can't wait to see how you plan to tie it all together.
 
Ok, the cyclone center is half way.
F6AF7CD8-6084-4F92-BC05-695F8BBFEE4D_zpsdag1bnqh.jpg


A much bigger PITA then one might imagine. The project of course starts out with that laser cut plate. I knew that I was gonna have to cut each end to match the rounded curve of each tail light. What I didn't consider was how hard it was gonna be to make a frame to follow the same outline.

Nonetheless, I set out with some 1/4" x 1/2" aluminum bar, and bend the two end pieces over varying diameters of tubing. Once I was happy with the end pieces, I made two center spars to build a frame out of. In order to get adequate weld penetration, I beveled each end of the center pieces, and hooked up my aluminum spool gun.
Aluminum burns so hot, all you can do is just trigger that gun, and you'll have a molten mess in a second. The fact that I was trying to do this on the very end pieces complicated the process even more.

After I got the thing welded, I got out a plethora of other hand tools to better be able to grind, file, cut, and blend the excess aluminum weld into the rest of the frame. Afterwards I set the center plate in the frame.

It had gotten out of square.

No problem, it was aluminum, I'll just tweak the frame back into shape. I put one corner on the bench, and press down on the opposite diagonal corner.

it promptly shatters into 4 seperate pieces.

Evidently, I didn't get it as welded as I thought I did.

See the problem is that thick aluminum has to get hot before it'll adequately flow into a weld. That stupid spool gun is pouring so much wire into the weld, and the adjacent pieces being so thick, it looked like it was doing the job. what I actually did the first time was tantamount to soldering the thing instead of actually welding.

So,...back to the table. This time with a torch.

The torch was used to preheat the metal. When I pointed the spool gun at the target, I ended up with what was a literal hot mess.

At least it wasn't gonna come apart.

It took about an hour to get the frame tolerable enough to move forward, with the next step being the marrying of the center, and frame together. Origionally, I planned to spot weld the thing around its perimeter, but after the disaster that was the ends, I decided to use epoxy putty instead.

* I tell ya,....I should hit up JB weld. As much of this car that is glued together, you'd think they'd consider sponsoring me a paint job or somethin.

Anyway, I digress.

I glued the two pieces together for two reasons actually. One I've already discussed, the other is to seal the plate so light from behind cannot be seen.

Done deal.

Fins go on top of the plate. A 1/2 x 1/8 will cover the screws that serve as mount studs. I wanted to use a 1/4 x 1/8" piece closer to the center after that. Problem is,..that size in aluminum doesn't exist. That leaves me undecided. Since I'm glueing those things on top as well, I could use steel, and steel certainly comes in those sizes. But my intention was/is to paint the the whole thing matte black, then sand/buff off the tops of the fins and expose a raw finish. If it was aluminum, I'd be done. If I use steel however, I gotta spray some clear on top of the bare metal to seal it.

Don't know how well clear will stay on top of un primed bare steel.
 
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I did some Google based research and didn't find anything that suggested that the Marine Corps flew A-10s. The airframe and landing gear wasn't designed for carrier landings. The wings don't fold , so it can't easily be crammed in the below deck storage. Without the folding wing, there is less available space and that translates into less aircraft that can be carried. It seems that every thing the Marines fly is carrier compatible.


You may be right. What little I found after I saw your post suggests that they're still bantering about it. I do recall that there were Marines testifying before congress against retiring the A-10. I that, that is still ongoing too.

It's a bigger mess now than it was 20 ish years ago.
 
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