Sorry if we’ve done this, and for the slightly clickbaity website, but how cool is this?

http://www.warhistoryonline.com/military-vehicle-news/seriously-the-kalinin-k-7-bomber-actually-took-to-the-air.html

…except that the picture you see is nothing like the actual aircraft. The scale is massively distorted. It was nothing like that size in reality.

For scale

Yeah just realised that. Still fair cool though I reckon. That first pic is actually little like the real thing isn’t it!

hoax

love the battleship turret version

The second page of the linky has a pic which is very different.

(edit) Late to the party, as usual.

V good!

Didn’t the Russian also develop a Tank with ‘strap on’ (ooh-err) aeroplane bits? Wings, tail..that sort of thing?

Weighed, ooooh, about a million tons, I think it even flew!

Didn’t the Russian also develop a Tank with ‘strap on’ (ooh-err) aeroplane bits? Wings, tail..that sort of thing?

As did the Americans… 🙂

nickc – Member
Didn’t the Russian also develop a Tank with ‘strap on’ (ooh-err) aeroplane bits? Wings, tail..that sort of thing?

Isn’t that basically what a c130 spectre is.

Isn’t that basically what a c130 spectre is.

Yes

I love the Warthog

I prefer this picture of it:

jambalaya – Member
I love the Warthog

Unfortunately the high-ups in the U.S. Military don’t, and have been using obfuscation and outright lies to try to get it killed off, so they can have lots of stupidly expensive and more exotic fast jets, like F-16, F-22, and F-35’s, which are hopelessly inappropriate for a low-level ground attack rôle supporting troops.
They won’t even use AV8-B Harriers, which we stupidly got rid of, which would be ideal for the sort of conflicts over the last ten-fifteen years.
But, yes, the A-10’s a brilliant plane, and the noise they make when they fire that chuffing great cannon is unforgettable, like someone ripping sheets of corrugated steel in two. I sat on top of Llanstephan Castle watching them live-firing on a range across the estuary.
Amazing.

The Ekranoplan is where it is at for crazy Russian planes:

http://www.wired.com/2011/06/ekranoplan/

That’s insane!!!

hmmmm, the USAF have a long history of blowing hot and cold over the CAS role. TBH most of the CAS duties recently have actually been done very successfully by trad. fast jets and smart weapons, because mostly you need speed, as there are quite a lot of very powerful shoulder mounted missiles knocking about the middle east these days, and it’s just one of the things the A-10 doesn’t do well. If you need loiter, then drones….There’s a reason that most of them are doing the FAC role, and why they very hastily had to upgrade its threat detection equipment (A-10C).

It’s a bit redundant. Although the Army quite like it.

The Warthog is intended for low level strafing style attacks on tanks. The F16 and other more exotic aeroplanes deploy laser and GPS guided weaponry from beyond visual range, often targeted from another platform, like AWACS or even ground based troops. So they’re multi role aircraft – ground attack as well as air superiority, and not specialist one trick ponies. The Warthog simply has become obsolete- so no conspiracy around its demise. Great bit of kit though – basically an aeroplane wraped around a dirty great gatling gun. It was the actually attack helicopters like the Apache that were the final nail in the Warthog’s coffin. The F16 especially has proved itself to be one of the most versatile aircraft ever built. It’s a ground attack aircraft, a bomber and a dogfighter. Not many other aircraft other than the latest crop of fighters like the Typhoon and Raptor, are truly multi-role.

The Ekranoplan is where it is at for crazy Russian planes:

[pedant] The Ekranoplan isn’t a plane…[/pedant]

I never realised that the GAU-8 was the bit of kit behind the Goalkeeper CIWS…

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY6nm-6eCzM[/video]

There was a German plane that was a tank gun with some wings built around it. Henschel 129

Mosquito with a 57mm Gun. A U-boat killer:

75mm in a mitchell

This guy is worth reading for info about the A-10.