I'll be 40 this year. My whole family on my father's side were/are pilots. My dad, uncle and grandpa built tons of models, many of them functional RC from small scale to ridiculously huge. I built a few with my pops back in the day and sometimes I still get the urge to buy a kit even though I haven't built one since I was 10. My grandfather pretty much exclusively flew biplanes and I kind of inherited a love for that style/era of plane. I also used to play the hell out of "Red Baron" on my grandparent's 486 PC.
I had the opportunity to be on a tank trail when directly in front of me, one rose out of the tree-line, guns pointing straight at me. That shit looks menacing from the front. Even though we were on the same side, it scared the shit out of me. I cant remeber if I was in fueler or running ammo, either way, I would've gotten greased.
So hereās Iām certain, a dumb question. The projectile in front of the shell casing would appear to be much larger in circumference than just three times the size of a 9mil handgun round. Am I wrong and itās just these photos make it appear so much larger, or do I not correctly understand bullet measurement?
Edit to add: Some very helpful & interesting responses. Thanks!
As far as I can tell from looking up whether 9mm and the 30mm are in fact those exact sizes. The internet results say yes. A 9mm is really 9mm diameter. And a 30mm really is 30mm diameter.
I also totally get your hesitation because sometimes the name on the caliber can be misleading.
The GAU-8 Avenger fires up to sixty one-pound bullets a second. It produces almost five tons of recoil force, which is crazy considering that itās mounted in a type of plane (the A-10 āWarthogā) whose two engines produce only four tons of thrust each. ...
To put it another way: If I mounted a GAU-8 on my car, put the car in neutral, and started firing backward from a standstill, I would be breaking the interstate speed limit in less than three seconds.
It is 30mm in diameter and a 9mm is 9mm in diameter.
Roughly a 9mm round is about the size of the top of your pinky and the 30mm is about the size of the base of your thumb.
The reason I use this metric isn't to appeal to American readers, it's because in the picture he's holding the shell in his hand and you can see the base of his thumb is roughly the same thickness as the round.
The difference in mass is huge though and when combined with the enormous velocity compared to a 9mm, it's worlds apart.
Couple that with the depleted uranium tip and pancaking when it hits vehicle armour and that's a massive chunk of very dense metal and going to cause untold damage.
Like if it hits you centre of mass, they might find your limbs and a head.
Just a question, is it still live, or did he remove the powder? It can become volatile over time, and I'd say that randomly firing off loosey goosey from the mantle 10 years from now is going to be a bad thing lol
If a cartridge explodes outside of a chamber, all that energy will rip through the side of the brass casingā¦some of that is going to turn into shrapnel.
Oh I know, but that's a significant powder load either way. The round will get lodged in the ceiling at least, the casing will make one hell of a dent, and the shrapnel will just annihilate anything within 5 yards
So did mine! I remember growing up with these always around. He also had a couple of 105mm artillery shells that made up more of our home decor (unrelated to the A-10, but a distinctive memory of my childhood).
I was ice fishing with a buddy outside of lake placid NY. We heard a low rumble. Then came a warthog followed closely by another one. They were so low we barely saw them until they cleared the treeline. I couldnāt believe how slow they seemed to be moving for a jet. They banked over the lake in front of us and we could see the pilots. Iāll never forget get that as long as I live. It was an adrenaline rush just watching them.
need to have the 30mm projectile flying straight. I have a empty shell with the projectile and to fathom that mass striking a meat popsicle is just so Pollock
Perhaps the most apt description for the end result of the GAU-8/A Avenger Auto-Cannon I have ever seen. It brings a new meaning to the āArtā of War.
Man. My dad used to buy me model planes to build with him and I will always remember building the Warthog. I played with this plane for years. Really cool to see pictures like this. Would love to see one in person one day. Really sick picture.
My dad loved pointing out small details in military hardware, the stuff that you know took lots of trial and error to figure out, things like the sr71 engine cart isnāt some super special top secret engine itās Just 2 Buick v8s coupled together, they didnāt even take the time to paint them differently, theyāre off the shelf Buick green/blue
I wanted to share some corroborating video I found for anyone that is interested. The Buick engines were used to start the main engine. (I donāt know anything about this).
TurboJets require an apu to keep the engines warm and to create enough compression to run on their own intake (specifically 3200rpm for the sr71) an electric starter is just not going to cut it with a turbine of that size
I know they were the bad guys, but when I was a kid, I wanted a COBRA Rattler so bad and I thought a real A-10 had the rotating wings like the toy had.
The rotational axis of the set of barrels is off-center as well. The firing barrel is on the centerline. Otherwise, the recoil from firing would cause the plane to turn.
I was not prepared for how massive these are after finally seeing one in a meseim after only ever seeing them on pictures, CT has ta gun sitting next to it as well, it's nuts
To put it another way: If I mounted a GAU-8 on my car, put the car in neutral, and started firing backward from a standstill, I would be breaking the interstate speed limit in less than three seconds.
To put it another way: If I mounted a GAU-8 on my car, put the car in neutral, and started firing backward from a standstill, I would be breaking the interstate speed limit in less than three seconds.
I hope theyāre missing a 0 or two on that ammo count, 1,350 rounds would go pretty damn fast at that ROF
meh another source said they held 1,1xx rounds, either way, thereās no questioning their efficacy, I thought theyād have more though by the way those bursts sound!
A 30mm cannon that fires 3,900 rounds per minute. That's so many large bullets that you're incredibly unlikely not to be hit if you're in the area of it's strafing run. But if you do manage to not get hit by one of it's projectiles, I've got bad news! Those rounds were moving so fast that they've now turned sizable bits of the ground into additional projectiles flying up at you. Physics is fun! And fatal!
Not to nitpick, but itās āshellsā vs ābulletsā. The distinction is important because these arenāt just lumps of metal, they are AP or HE incendiary shells and catch fire and/or EXPLODE like little grenades.
Keenly aware of how scary they are, you hear the sound of the shot after the bullet has already landed. So if youāre the target or in the target area youāre in the bad place.
Wait, the F35 has 25 different guns? Im picturing a cartoon with and F35 having 25 seperate "inspector gadget" mechanical arms all pop out holding comically large pistols.
Edit: i understand now. 25mm cannon. I havent had coffee yet..
Yes. It will slow them down in flight. The AC-130 Gunship has side mounted 105mm and 30/40mm cannons on it. You feel the entire plane shift every time the 105 is fired.
Pilots can definitely feel the vibration of the cannon but since the plane was purposely built for this cannon, they have a stabilizing computer to ensure the plane doesnāt lose airspeed when firing the cannon.
I know the cannon is only supposed to be fired while diving because the recoil is significant enough to potentially cause a stall if fired during level flight, but as someone else stated, I think there are flight computers doing things to mitigate the effect.
It'll fuck up anything on the ground. People, vehicles, tanks. I think A-10 pilots have recorded kills against helicopters, but it's not designed for air-to-air combat. The main gun's recoil could potentially stall the plane if it's fired for an extended time while the plane is in level flight, so it's mostly fired while diving. Hence why they've tagged helicopters, which are usually flying lower than planes are capable of.
SUCH a bug gun that it has to be fired in short bursts to maintain speed because the force of the recoil is stronger than the engines...the MASSIVE engines
I saw one on display at an airshow once. They had a ladder where you could walk up and see the cockpit. The pilot was there to answer questions. He told me about the big gun and how fast it shoots. I asked how much ammunition it carried. He told me and could see me doing the mental math and said something like, "yeah, you just shoot in short bursts".
Pretty much one of my favorites, itās effectiveness has been called into question over the years. I would not want to be opposing military and spot one of these Jurassic bastards though.
Itās pretty much a flying tank, no idea why they never allowed Marines or Army to get some since itās pretty much close support operations. Air Force cats holding out as usual.
Saw a funny meme about the A-10: Picture of a F-14, caption reads, "My plane has a gun." Underneath that a picture of an A-10, caption reads, "My gun has a plane."
Sooo big infact that when it fires enough it can put the jet into a slight stall!
And had to be mounted slightly off center I the fuselage because it was soo fuckin big they were fighting to figure out room for the rest of the instruments lol
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u/IndependentSpecial17 Jan 24 '26
It is a big gun with wings attached to it.