FAIRCHILD A-10 A/C THUNDERBOLT II FLYING IN THE U.S. AIR FORCE
AIRCRAFT FEATURING a shark’s mouth, such as the famed P-40 of the Flying Tigers or the Warthog scheme featured on some of the A-10s, draw a lot of attention. Remarkably, A-10 has been in service for nearly 50 years, with the U.S. Air Force first taking delivery in 1976.
Until recently, we would often see two A-10s flying over AMA’s International Aeromodeling Center in Muncie, Indiana. At times, they would even perform simulated landings at the nearby Delaware County regional Airport!
The A-10 is an often-modeled aircraft, from foam EDF versions right up to turbine models. They are also seen at Scale competitions.
With the interest in the A-10 and modelers frequently looking for detailed photos, I was happy to receive a copy of Fairchild A-10 A/C Thunderbolt II: Flying in the United States Air Force, by Duke Hawkins With Peter Anthoni, from HMH Publications, and distributed by Casemate Publishers. The book spans 180 pages and, although it doesn’t list it on the website, there are easily more than 300 pictures!
If you’re interested in a publication for high-resolution photos of many aspects of the A-10, this book delivers. In fact, the photos are broken down into groups. Imagine that you want to see photos of the front landing gear; there is a section of the book that includes more than 20 photos.
The text and captions do a nice job of complementing the abundance of photos in the book and give the sense that the photographs might be the biggest draw. On the back of the book, it even states, “In this book we show you every detail of the Warthog.”
One of the things that I learned about the A-10 from reading the book is that the main gear, not including the nose gear, doesn’t fully retract, and some of the tire remains outside of the aircraft to aid in a wheels-up landing.
Although this was the first book I’ve seen from HMH Publications, a quick search on the Casemate Publishers website shows that several books about various aircraft have been released, with most covering military jets.
If you are interested in great photos of the A-10, grouped in such a way to quickly find what you are looking for, and learn a bit more about the aircraft along the way, this book could be for you. It retails for $42 on Casemate’s website.
SOURCES:
Casemate Publishers
(610) 853-9131
www.casematepublishers.com
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