Fairchild-Republic Thunderbolt 2 (00810962)

Best of all, forever!

Perfect spread of the parachutes above the A-10 !!

great shot Bill

BRIMFROST85, A Pair of these showed off their below 1 click AGL abilities to my Reserve Company while waiting C130 STL back from field drills. What struck all of us USAR guys from Walker,MN was how little sound those big turbofans made; they smoked in out of the low noon sun( January, SE of Fairbanks,AK, ) at 300KTS and then did mock ground support runs around us straight legs. Even when they no doubt had throttles pegged the sound was only a semi loud whistling whoosh, which rapidly faded when they jinked away, which was often; it was a 3D figure 8 of now you see me now you don't!! The TIGHT turning radius of the HOG has to be seen live to truly be appreciated, as well as the pilots stare: IVAN, I've got the BADEST airborne HOSE ever made!!! Equally impressive to me was the acceleration and SHORT takeoff run of our very lightly loaded C130, I told my junior RTO as we were nearing a VERY full spooling of the Allisons, when they pitch these blades we'll roll a short distance and then climb like you won't believe. Rookies laughed when us vets said lean to the nose, (side web seats), a few green faces said post flight "Next time I'll heed flying FYI's. Thanks to a big ridge/trough it was warmer in AK than MN; plus 10 to 35F vs -35 to 5F.

Awesome shot of an awesome bird!

I love that plane!!

Last of the Stick & Rudder Combat Planes.
Best of the ground attack, so far