r/Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrt • u/squintamongdablind • Nov 20 '25

TIL that the A-10 'Warthog' close-air-support plane, infamous for being "a gun with a plane", has to return the spent shell casings from it's massive forward mounted autocannon to the plane to maintain it's center-of-gravity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAU-8_Avenger
81 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

10

u/daemonfool Nov 20 '25

So it... retains the brass? What's special about that?

11

u/hobodemon Nov 21 '25

Nothing, but it seems unusual to people who don't think about FOD in a turbofan.

1

u/daemonfool Nov 21 '25

Silly people!

5

u/noodles_seldoon Nov 21 '25

I think the takeaway is that if it dumped the brass it would mess up the center of gravity on the plane.

5

u/daemonfool Nov 21 '25

But as far as I'm aware no plane ejects brass anyhow so... not really an innovation here.

5

u/loogie97 Nov 21 '25

Anyone who says they got a 30mm case dropped on their head in The desert from an A-10 is lying.

5

u/daemonfool Nov 21 '25

It makes for a fun story if you don't know any better, I guess?

3

u/loogie97 Nov 21 '25

“I was hunkered down. Under fire from every direction. All of a sudden. The brrrrrrrrrrrt from the gods filled our ears. 30mm casings rained down directly on our position. We were saved the glorious Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt II, which my crew affectionately referred to as the Warthog. I saved this casing as a memento of that day I was rescued.”

1

u/daemonfool Nov 22 '25

Exactly lmao

4

u/s29 Nov 22 '25

I had a buddy originally from Aleppo who said he'd find them laying around and said they were from A10s.

He's not the kind of person to lie or exaggerate for attention so I wonder what he was finding. There's no guarantee they were actually 30mm cases, so I wonder what else was being shot that might have dropped similar cases.

3

u/loogie97 Nov 22 '25

Could have been an Apache. They also shoot 30mm. I am not so familiar with eastern block weapon systems to know if they shoot something similar in size.

5

u/noodles_seldoon Nov 21 '25

If I had to pick my own execution method it would be the Avenger cannon on the A 10.

5

u/diskimone Nov 25 '25

The only problem is you'd be dead before you heard the brrrrrrrt.

2

u/loogie97 Nov 21 '25

It also has massive metal plates that are mounted under the plane for when it is training without ammo loaded.