Long-time readers know how much OTR loves airplanes. For newer reader, let it be said that I spent most of my first nine summers in an around a recycled World War II Quonset hut in West Virginia. It served as the hub of the small fixed base operation known as Baker's Air Park. After that experience, I never saw an airplane I didn't like. Any hint of sound in the air or sight of a contrail and my eyes were skyward. Still happens today.When we lived on the great salt marshes east of Savannah and under a magnificent sky dome, it was great fun watching the endless air traffic on the Northeast to Florida jet route. Closer to sea level, we saw any number of military aircraft, but watching the training flights of one aircraft in particular was always an air show. That aircraft was the A-10 Thunderbolt, fondly known as the Warthog. Thirty five years later she is still at the battlefront as an essential close-in air support weapon.
The Warthog is quiet, nimble and deadly. Not much to look at, she's still loved by pilots and mechanics alike as a reliable flying cannon that almost always returns to base, even when missing parts and filled with holes. Blogger-journalist Michael Yon, reporting from Kandahar Airport, Afghanistan, earlier this month, has posted a beautiful photo essay on the Warthog. Although this essay hit news outlets and blogs in quick order today, I simply felt it could not be overlooked so here is your link. Hope you enjoy.
For the aviation enthusiasts among us, here's an interview on the A-10 conducted by Aero-TV at the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture 2009, Oshkosh, Wisconsin:
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