“Thunderbolts and Lightning, very very frightening me…” These lyrics will be familiar to anyone who has heard Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. They are also a favourite for meme generators when it comes to images of P-47s and P-38s. Certainly down the years I ve made a number of the former and one - I think - of the latter, but when it comes to the P-47s modern namesake, the A-10 Thunderbolt II, I ve made precisely ero, which is odd given that it is an aeroplane than has long held a fascination for me.
I think I first came across it in aviation maga ines in the 1970s and tales of its immense gatling gun that could puree armour with ease, in fact the A-10 was a gun with an aeroplane built around it. Certainly its unconventional looks - straight wing with two engines riding on the rear fuselage - lent it a unique, almost comical character. Any doubts as to its effectiveness as a weapon, which usually accompanies any new design, were dispelled in the Gulf ar of 1991 where the A-10 gave as good as it received, some aircraft returning to base with bits of wing and whole tail surfaces missing, a testament to its battlefield survivability which had been planned into the design from the start.
Certainly I have a couple of quite vivid memories of how eerie the aircraft could be, both instances of being in open country near to where A-10s were based and hearing that unique whine of the engine, the aircraft suddenly popping up out of the terrain from nowhere before vanishing again. I always thought Ghost would have been a good alternative title for it but, because of its rather ungainly look which attracted tusked nose art, the name Warthog stuck and is the name it goes by today.