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A comment on Dark spot under cockpit of A-10s. Parent comment

Re:Dark spot under cockpit of A-10s by beaker52 on Thursday March 06, 2014 @12:56PM (#7355361)
Guns producing more recoil than an aircraft's powertrain is nothing new. In WW2 fighters would be slowed when firing larger calibre weapons, noticeably impacting airspeed, especially with repeated firing.

http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/can-gun-recoil-rea...

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Re:Dark spot under cockpit of A-10s by stcredzero on Thursday March 06, 2014 @03:35PM (#7356376)
Guns producing more recoil than an aircraft's powertrain is nothing new.

Yes, but AFAIK, the A-10 is the only plane that was designed by starting with a BFG, then building a plane around it.

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Re:Dark spot under cockpit of A-10s by dylanrw on Friday March 07, 2014 @05:43AM (#7359522)
You are forgetting the Bell P-39 Aircobra and P-63 King Cobra, both airframes designed around their cannon.
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Re:Dark spot under cockpit of A-10s by stcredzero on Friday March 07, 2014 @08:37PM (#7363872)
Ah, yeah, though I wasn't aware they really did start with the particular gun and work their out. Ok, yeah, they even had the specific gun in mind! The Oldsmobile T9 Cannon, you learn something new everyday!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_P-39_Airacobra#Circular_Pr...

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Re:Dark spot under cockpit of A-10s by auctiontheory on Thursday March 06, 2014 @04:44PM (#7356821)
Upvoted for the elegant use of "BFG."
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Re:Dark spot under cockpit of A-10s by stcredzero on Thursday March 06, 2014 @09:45PM (#7358220)
Sometimes "elegant" == "obvious"
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Re:Dark spot under cockpit of A-10s by QuotedForTruth on Thursday March 06, 2014 @01:53PM (#7355760)
There is a difference between just slowing the craft and producing recoil force on the same order as the engines. If a plane is flying at a constant speed, then its in equilibrium. The engines are producing an equal amount of thrust to the amount of drag on the plane. Any recoil force will upset this and slow the plane down. This doesnt mean that they are producing more force than the powertrain.

The A10 doesnt do this either of course. It produces more recoil force than one engine, but not both.

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