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Post by pat perry on Jul 5, 2011 5:22:01 GMT 9
The A-10 gun fires depleted uranium bullets. Here's what an email from Dell said on this topic:
Something you might not know: When the 20 mm depleted (not spent) uranium round was developed, they loaded it in a "warthog", told the pilot that there were tanks over the hill. He was to go up over the hill and hit as many tanks as he could. They would consider the test successful if he killed a tank and damaged a couple of others. The pilot topped the hill, nosed down and hit the rudder as he opened fire. He sprayed the whole other side of the hill and killed most of the tanks there. on one pass! I saw films of DU tests. They compared a 20 mm DU round with an explosive round. They set a 2 inch thick armor plate at a 45 degree angle against the side of an armored personnel carrier, then backed off half a mile and fired the 20 mm. The explosive round made a little puff of white smoke against the armor plate. The DU round looked like the fourth of July. It went through the armor plate and both sides of the armored personnel carrier. They thought that was something, so they put a 5 gal jerry can full of gas in each corner of the carrier, replaced the armor plate and tried it again. One shot and they burned holes in all four cans of gas (and ignited it, of course). After seeing the films, if ever I'm in battle, I'm staying as far away from armor as I can get! You may have seen the picture of the Iraqi tank from the first gulf war that was on the cover of the magazine. If you looked closely, there was a white spot on the turrent of the tank. Closer examination showed the white spot to be the sky on the other side! A DU round had gone straight through the turrent of the tank (The DU projectile of a 105 mm shell is about 1 1/4 inch in diameter and sixteen inches long.) DU is half again as heavy as the same volume of lead. Depleted uranium is uranium which has had the U 235 and 233 removed -- Natural Uranium has about 0.7% U235 and a trace of U233 in it. To make bombs, they use 235 and 233. They "enrich" by removing U 238 and leaving the lighter isotopes. They typically reduce the 235 from 0.7% to about 0.2%, so they have to process a lot of uranium to get a little bomb. The "depleted" uranium is waste and they use it for projectiles and counterweights, etc. (Some aircraft have DU trailing edges on the control surfaces to keep them from fluttering in flight.) DU makes a good anti tank round because it reacts with steel like an oxygen torch -- it literally burns it's way through. Which is why they use DU as shielding/armor on the M! Abrams tank. Dell
More from the email: The bullet for the 30x173 Avenger has an aluminum jacket around a spent uranium core and weighs 6560 grains (yes, over 100 times as heavy as the M16 bullet, and flies through the air at 3500 fps (which is faster than the M16 as well).
The gun shoots at a rate of 4200 rounds per minute, Yes, four thousand. Pilots typically shoot either one- or two-second burst which set loose 70 to 150 rounds. The system is optimized for shooting at 4,000 feet.
OK, the best for last.
You've got a pretty good idea of how big that cartridge is, but I'll bet you're like me and you don't fully appreciate how big the GA GAU-8 Avenger really is.
Take a look ...
Here's a picture of the GA GAU-8 Avenger
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MOW
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Post by MOW on Jul 5, 2011 7:59:17 GMT 9
Yup, that's the one they had to pull anytime we did work inside the gun bay, but after a while working on the warthog you kinda forget or don't realize just how big that gun is. This is from my A-10 site www.2951clss-gulfwar.com/
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Post by pat perry on Jul 5, 2011 10:50:23 GMT 9
Yup, that's the one they had to pull anytime we did work inside the gun bay, but after a while working on the warthog you kinda forget or don't realize just how big that gun is. This is from my A-10 site www.2951clss-gulfwar.com/Pat, Nice site on your repair operation! I enjoyed the link to the ladder door art. Nice place to hide your more risky art work from everyday view. Pat P. :2thumbsup
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Post by Deleted on Jul 12, 2011 8:46:39 GMT 9
long after I got out, I used to sit on the loading dock at the U of A Mailroom. I could sit there and watch those birds for hours. They're one of the reasons why I started to look at Tucson for my retirement home
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