This is by far the best book yet published on the A-10 ground attack aircraft and it is hard to envision it being equalled. Dedicated ground attack aircraft rarely receive adequate attention from military aviation historians. – Most Highly Recommended
NAME: Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, The 'Warthog' Ground Attack Aircraft FILE: R3328 AUTHOR: Peter C Smith PUBLISHER: Air World, Pen and Sword BINDING: hard back PRICE: £35.00 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: Cold War, insurgency wars, Middle East Conflict, dedicated ground attack aircraft, flying artillery, counter-insurgency, close support, depleted uranium shells, anti-armour, tank killer, single seat. Low level attack aircraft ISBN: 1-52675-926-8 PAGES: 428, extensive illustration in B&W and full colour, including cutaway drawings, mission evolutions,and supporting tables IMAGE: B3328.jpg BUYNOW: http://tinyurl.com/32dz97wz LINKS: DESCRIPTION: This is by far the best book yet published on the A-10 ground attack aircraft and it is hard to envision it being equalled. Dedicated ground attack aircraft rarely receive adequate attention from military aviation historians. – Most Highly Recommended The A-10 is one of those aircraft that is best replaced by itself. It drives politicians mad because it seems such a soft target for cost cutting, but it fills a role that remains essential and difficult to fill with anything else. The pilot sits in an armoured bathtub and everything that can be is duplicated and mounted apart to minimise the possibility of fatal damage from ground fire and fighter aircraft. High speed over the target is not a major requirement but a heavy anti-armour gun system is, together with a capability to hang a very heavy missile and rocket armament under the wings. The A-10 achieves all of that and looks like an aircraft that can fly forever. There are very few aircraft that have so exactly filled the ground attack roles as successfully as the A-10. The Germans built the Halberstadt and the British Sopwith company built the Dolphin during WWI, which were both optimised for strafing ground targets, but were classed, and used also, as fighters. In WWII the German Stuka was flying artillery that proved impossible to completely replace and served through WWII. The British Hawker Typhoon was to prove a very effective ground attack aircraft with four cannon and underwing rockets. The Soviets produced a Shturmovik that was in a similar category to the Stuka and built in huge numbers and the German Henschel was a design that could have achieved greater acclaim had it been built in adequate numbers With these few exceptions, the A-10 is a very rare design that has been produced specifically to take out armoured ground targets and accept and survive ground fire. The author has made a first rate job of presenting the A-10 and its deployments in a very thorough review that will make this book the definitive title for the A-10.