Winston
Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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To read the full details of what went wrong (it wasn't technological), see the full article.
The Tragic Tale Of The A-10 Thunderhog Storm Chasing Jet That Almost Was
After millions were spent, the most promising storm penetrating aircraft ever devised sits partially completed in a hangar in Colorado.
24 Sep 2018
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/23088/the-tragic-tale-of-the-a-10-thunderhog-storm-chasing-jet
Selected excerpts:
By 2014, a somewhat obscure program to turn an A-10 Warthog into a storm chasing laboratory the likes of which the world had never seen before had begun to make headlines, and for good reason. I was just as excited as anyone to see the legendary tank-busting attack jet finally migrate to the civilian world in the name of science. The concept was so far-fetched sounding that even one of the nation's most famous storm chasers couldn't believe that the headlines—including ones I had written—were true. But they were indeed legit. Spurred by a $13M grant from the National Science Foundation, a menagerie of stakeholders was hard at work making their dreams of the ultimate storm penetrating flying machine a reality. It was all one heck of a story—that is until it wasn't.
By the end of 2016, the whole project had evaporated from the public sphere without as much as a whimper. How could such an exciting, promising, important, and highly publicized project that was well along the path to being realized simply disappear? Last winter I set out to answer this exact question, here's what I found out.
What would become known internally as the SPA-10 Thunderhog was actually intended to be the successor of a humble yet remarkable aircraft whose decades-long job was to penetrate into some of the nastiest storms Mother Nature had to offer. Compared to the flying hurricane hunters that are so well covered by the mainstream media, this aircraft was far less glamorous, but also an incredibly important scientific tool, and far more robust.
The need for a more capable storm penetrating aircraft really dates back to the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was becoming clear that the (T-28) Trojan had its limitations and new technologies could be put to work over a much wider flight envelope by a hardy aircraft with higher performance. By the late-1990s, the A-10 Thunderbolt was already being eyed for this exact role and the reasoning behind its final selection is abundantly clear. The same attributes that make the aircraft so effective on the battlefield would also make for an incredible storm penetrating scientific flying machine.
The Warthog was built to soak up hits from anti-aircraft artillery that would shatter other tactical jets. The aircraft's honeycomb construction is designed to withstand strikes from small arms fire, shrapnel, and up to 23mm cannon fire. Critical parts of the jet, including the 'titanium bathtub' surrounding the cockpit, can withstand direct hits from 57mm anti-aircraft artillery shells. It also has redundant systems arranged on either side of the jet and its high-bypass turbofan engines are reliable, fuel efficient, and have a higher capacity to handle foreign object ingestions—like tennis ball sized hail. As a result, the armor modifications needed for an A-10 storm penetrating aircraft would be less extensive than the ones required on the T-28.
The A-10's flight controls are relatively simple and its electronic components are shielded for operations in a nuclear environment—a good thing when it comes to withstanding lightning strikes. The rugged jet is also supportable by smaller ground crews operating in less than pristine conditions and can carry a wide variety of stores on its 11 hardpoints. The huge compartment for its massive gun, once removed, would provide ample interior space for mission-specific gear and the hydraulic drive system that spun the GAU-8 Avenger cannon could be adapted to generate large amounts of auxiliary electric power.
The A-10 was built with rapid repairability of battle damage in the field in mind. This could include replacing damaged panels and structures with new ones or literally filling holes punched in its skin. These attributes are ideal for a storm penetrating aircraft that would take some damage from hail and especially from lightning strikes.
Its straight wings also meant that it could penetrate storms at slower speeds than its swept wing counterparts. At the same time, its ability to fly at much higher speeds when not flying into storms could be leveraged to do what the T-28 couldn't—forward-deploy to distant locales or chase storms far from its base. But maybe most important of all is that the Warthog could fly at 35,000 feet—something its predecessor couldn't come close to. This opens up new possibilities for important scientific research that has never been realized before.
The bottom line here is that SPA-10 wasn't a bad idea. It just ran into major execution hurdles and was underfunded from the get-go. This can be fixed. But until then, the fate of Thunderhog remains uncertain at best and downright dismal at worst. According to our sources, some of the remnants of the SPA-10 team recently traveled to Hill AFB to discuss the jet's future with the new head of USAF's A-10 systems program office. The exact results of that engagement remain unclear, but it seems more to do with keeping the USAF from repossessing the aircraft than from getting the program funded and back on track.
And there definitely is still a need. A scientific workshop that occurred in Boulder, Colorado in May of 2017 and sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research resulted in a final report titled "Requirements for In Situ and Remote Sensing Capabilities in Convective and Turbulent Environments." It concluded the following:
"The instrumentation of a storm-penetrating manned aircraft that can withstand severe turbulence, hail, and lightning strikes is greatly desired by investigators studying continental convection, including severe storms. Such an aircraft would allow measurement of turbulence, 3D wind, trace gases, aerosol, the electric field, and thermodynamic and cloud physical variables along its flight path. A manned aircraft is currently the only reliable way of making such measurements. A US Air Force A-10 aircraft is currently being evaluated by NSF for this role. The need for extensive aircraft modifications without Supplemental Type Certificates, and the lack of other A-10s for civilian use, make this an expensive and high-risk project, but the stakes are high for those studying severe convection."
As it sits now, that gap hangs wide open for the meteorological science community and if nobody steps in to save the Thunderhog there is little chance that it will ever be closed in the foreseeable future.
The Tragic Tale Of The A-10 Thunderhog Storm Chasing Jet That Almost Was
After millions were spent, the most promising storm penetrating aircraft ever devised sits partially completed in a hangar in Colorado.
24 Sep 2018
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/23088/the-tragic-tale-of-the-a-10-thunderhog-storm-chasing-jet
Selected excerpts:
By 2014, a somewhat obscure program to turn an A-10 Warthog into a storm chasing laboratory the likes of which the world had never seen before had begun to make headlines, and for good reason. I was just as excited as anyone to see the legendary tank-busting attack jet finally migrate to the civilian world in the name of science. The concept was so far-fetched sounding that even one of the nation's most famous storm chasers couldn't believe that the headlines—including ones I had written—were true. But they were indeed legit. Spurred by a $13M grant from the National Science Foundation, a menagerie of stakeholders was hard at work making their dreams of the ultimate storm penetrating flying machine a reality. It was all one heck of a story—that is until it wasn't.
By the end of 2016, the whole project had evaporated from the public sphere without as much as a whimper. How could such an exciting, promising, important, and highly publicized project that was well along the path to being realized simply disappear? Last winter I set out to answer this exact question, here's what I found out.
What would become known internally as the SPA-10 Thunderhog was actually intended to be the successor of a humble yet remarkable aircraft whose decades-long job was to penetrate into some of the nastiest storms Mother Nature had to offer. Compared to the flying hurricane hunters that are so well covered by the mainstream media, this aircraft was far less glamorous, but also an incredibly important scientific tool, and far more robust.
The need for a more capable storm penetrating aircraft really dates back to the late 1980s and early 1990s. It was becoming clear that the (T-28) Trojan had its limitations and new technologies could be put to work over a much wider flight envelope by a hardy aircraft with higher performance. By the late-1990s, the A-10 Thunderbolt was already being eyed for this exact role and the reasoning behind its final selection is abundantly clear. The same attributes that make the aircraft so effective on the battlefield would also make for an incredible storm penetrating scientific flying machine.
The Warthog was built to soak up hits from anti-aircraft artillery that would shatter other tactical jets. The aircraft's honeycomb construction is designed to withstand strikes from small arms fire, shrapnel, and up to 23mm cannon fire. Critical parts of the jet, including the 'titanium bathtub' surrounding the cockpit, can withstand direct hits from 57mm anti-aircraft artillery shells. It also has redundant systems arranged on either side of the jet and its high-bypass turbofan engines are reliable, fuel efficient, and have a higher capacity to handle foreign object ingestions—like tennis ball sized hail. As a result, the armor modifications needed for an A-10 storm penetrating aircraft would be less extensive than the ones required on the T-28.
The A-10's flight controls are relatively simple and its electronic components are shielded for operations in a nuclear environment—a good thing when it comes to withstanding lightning strikes. The rugged jet is also supportable by smaller ground crews operating in less than pristine conditions and can carry a wide variety of stores on its 11 hardpoints. The huge compartment for its massive gun, once removed, would provide ample interior space for mission-specific gear and the hydraulic drive system that spun the GAU-8 Avenger cannon could be adapted to generate large amounts of auxiliary electric power.
The A-10 was built with rapid repairability of battle damage in the field in mind. This could include replacing damaged panels and structures with new ones or literally filling holes punched in its skin. These attributes are ideal for a storm penetrating aircraft that would take some damage from hail and especially from lightning strikes.
Its straight wings also meant that it could penetrate storms at slower speeds than its swept wing counterparts. At the same time, its ability to fly at much higher speeds when not flying into storms could be leveraged to do what the T-28 couldn't—forward-deploy to distant locales or chase storms far from its base. But maybe most important of all is that the Warthog could fly at 35,000 feet—something its predecessor couldn't come close to. This opens up new possibilities for important scientific research that has never been realized before.
The bottom line here is that SPA-10 wasn't a bad idea. It just ran into major execution hurdles and was underfunded from the get-go. This can be fixed. But until then, the fate of Thunderhog remains uncertain at best and downright dismal at worst. According to our sources, some of the remnants of the SPA-10 team recently traveled to Hill AFB to discuss the jet's future with the new head of USAF's A-10 systems program office. The exact results of that engagement remain unclear, but it seems more to do with keeping the USAF from repossessing the aircraft than from getting the program funded and back on track.
And there definitely is still a need. A scientific workshop that occurred in Boulder, Colorado in May of 2017 and sponsored by the National Science Foundation, Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences, and the National Center for Atmospheric Research resulted in a final report titled "Requirements for In Situ and Remote Sensing Capabilities in Convective and Turbulent Environments." It concluded the following:
"The instrumentation of a storm-penetrating manned aircraft that can withstand severe turbulence, hail, and lightning strikes is greatly desired by investigators studying continental convection, including severe storms. Such an aircraft would allow measurement of turbulence, 3D wind, trace gases, aerosol, the electric field, and thermodynamic and cloud physical variables along its flight path. A manned aircraft is currently the only reliable way of making such measurements. A US Air Force A-10 aircraft is currently being evaluated by NSF for this role. The need for extensive aircraft modifications without Supplemental Type Certificates, and the lack of other A-10s for civilian use, make this an expensive and high-risk project, but the stakes are high for those studying severe convection."
As it sits now, that gap hangs wide open for the meteorological science community and if nobody steps in to save the Thunderhog there is little chance that it will ever be closed in the foreseeable future.
