From: hagood@sabre.den.mmc.com (Dave Hagood)
Subject: Prop-Driven CAS (was: Re: The A-10)In article 
Organization: Martin Marietta Astronautics Group
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 23:58:50 GMT

In article <viking.724529948@vincent2.iastate.edu>, viking@iastate.edu (Dan Sorenson) writes:
|> >>	Somehow, it sounds like the best CAS weapon we could field would be
|> >>a P-47 Thunderbolt, and maybe an few P-38's with chain guns under the
|> >>nose for those pesky armored targets.
|> >>	Considering how cheap an old piston fighter would be to produce and
|> >>maintain compared to the jets of today, this might be worth kicking
|> >>around as a CAS idea.
|> >>	It also has the side benefit of giving us great Army surplus!
|> 
|> The F4U, P-51, and others were used as CAS aircraft as late as 
|> Korea, and I believe a few P-51's were even to be found in the skies 
|> over Vietnam.  The idea is not new. 

	I don't believe P-51s were used in Vietnam, but the French used FG2D
Corsair (F4Us built under license by, um, Goodyear?) prior to the Dien Bien Phu
debacle.

	The USAF used B-26Ks (the Douglas B-26 imposter, not the Martin B-26
WidowMaker, err, Marauder) until very late in the Vietnam war.  The main reason
the USAG stopped using the B-26Ks is that the airframes were so old and tired
that they had lost at least one aircraft in combat due to age-induced 
structural failure, i.e. the wing spar broke!

	The USAF has had a long history of totally ignoring the Army's CAS needs
ever since the Key West accords of 1949 (?).  While the USAF F-100s, F-4s, etc,
gave the best service possible in Vietnam, these were either obsolete (F-100) or
front-line (F-4) air superiority fighter aircraft made into mud movers by
default, not by design.  The same thing happened in Korea, with F-84s, F-80s,
F-86s, etc pressed into service for which they were not designed (although they
did have lots of Douglas B-26s lying around, available for Korea).

	With the brilliant exception of the F-15E, the only aircraft the USAF
put into production specifically for the CAS role is the A-10.  My dad, who
flew the CAS role in Korea in F-86Es, said of the A-10:  1) It's about time the
Air Force realized you don't need to go 1000 mph to get the job done, and 2)
you watch, Hdqtrs Air Force will get rid of it as soon as they can. They have
never understood CAS and don't want to.

	There has long been a gap in the US aviation arsenal, and that is a
dedicated CAS aircraft with a large payload and a long loiter time, that can be
launched loaded for bear and just sort of stooge around until some trade
meandered by.  The A-10 comes close, but still lacks the loiter capability.

	The aircraft that comes to my mind is the Douglas A-1 Skyraider (or the
Martin Mauler, of course).  The Vietnam usage for the "sandy" mission is 
_exactly_ what I'm talking about...

	My $0.02.  You mileage may vary.

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David M. Hagood			Martin Marietta Astronautics Group	|
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