On June 1966 the USAF asked for a new CAS airplane to substitute the old Skyraider (although it was still being used in Vietnam), the project was called A-X program, 21 companies of which just Grumman, General Dynamics, Northrop and McDonnell were given a contract to follow.
In 1967 the USAF announced that Fairchild and Northrop built each one two prototypes, Fairchild build the YA-10 and Northrop the YA-9.
The first YA-10 flew in Edwards on May 10th , 1972. The evaluation was from October 10th until December 9th, 1972, the test pilots liked the better agility of the A-10 and his good characteristics to survive in combat.
On January 18th, 1973 it was announced that Fairchild was the winner, starting the production of 6 A-10, the first of which flew on February 15th 1975.
The first flight of a production aircraft was on October 21st 1975, and from then 713 planes have been made.
The first unit to be incorporated to the A-10A was the 355 Tactical Fighter Wing in the base of Davis-Monthan, Arizona, where the Vought A-7 were changed for A-10 in 1976.
In 1977 the three squadrons with A-10's (353, 355 and 356 TFS) were incorporated to the 57 Tactical Training Wing, in Nellis, Nevada, for operational evaluation.
In 1979 the 81 Tactical Fighter Wing in Britain started to receive A-10's, the 81 Tactical Fighter wing was formed by six squadrons and they were in the British bases of Bentwaters and Woodbridge, from there the A-10's could go to six FOL in West Germany to attack the soviet tanks during a supposed Third World War.
In 1991 during the gulf war the A-10A showed how powerful it is, quickly it was the press favorite plane, instead the F-16 which the generals wanted it to be.
Actually the most of the 327 planes in service are in the bases of Alaska, the 52 FW in Spangdahlem, Germany (this FW has entered in combat in Bosnia) and in Korea.
The main and more characteristic weapon in the A-10A is the GAU-8A gun, with shells as big as a milk bottle and almost 1 kg of weight, it has two different fire rates, 2100 and 4200 spm (which means 70 shells per second).
It�s 6.5 meters long, it weights 2 tons and as an A-10 pilot used to say, �the plane comes to life when you fire the GAU-8A�,�when the bullets hit the objective there is an explosion of sparks, crap and fragments�
Dimensions
Longitude: 16.26m
Heigh: 4.47m
Wing Span:17.53m
Engine
Two General Electric RF34-GE-100, 40.32Kn
Fuel
Internal fuel: 4853 kg
External fuel: Three fuel tanks of 2271 l
Armament
Gun: GAU-8A of 30mm with 1350 shells
External load: 7260 kg (GBU�s, CBU�s, Rockets, Mavericks)
Performance
Maximum horizontal speed at sea level: 700 km/h
Maximum speed at 1525m: 630 km/h
Climb rate: 1800 m/minute
Take off run: 1220m at full load or 442m at airstrip
Landing run: 610m at full landing weight or 336m at airstrip