Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II

what is it?

The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II, also widely known by the nickname Warthog, is a single-seat, twin-turbofan, straight-wing, subsonic attack aircraft developed by Fairchild Republic for the United States Air Force (USAF). In service since 1977, it is named after the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt strike-fighter of World War II, but is commonly referred to as the "Warthog". The A-10 was designed to provide close air support (CAS) to ground troops by attacking enemy armored vehicles, tanks, and other ground forces; it is the only production-built aircraft designed solely for CAS to have served with the U.S. Air Force.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 jet engines · 17.5 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 706 km/htop speed
• size 20.9 tmax take-off weight
• built 716made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 54 years ago, in 1972.
• 🏎️Top speed is 5.4× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 17.5 m: about 4 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 3 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🏔️Can fly 1.5× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1972-05-10

introduced

1977

status

still flying

number built

716

role

close air support attack aircraft

origin

🇺🇸 United States

makers

Fairchild Republic

engines

2× General Electric TF34-GE-100A / TF34

crew

1

length

16.3 m

wingspan

17.5 m

height

4.5 m

max take-off weight

20.9 t

top speed

706 km/h

cruise speed

560 km/h

range

—

ceiling

13,700 m

wings

monoplane

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.