Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: Gman on September 21, 2014, 08:40:02 PM

Title: Anyone remember the Ares A10 CAS supplemental a/c from the 90s?
Post by: Gman on September 21, 2014, 08:40:02 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG9LlHcX8lg&feature=related

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaled_Composites_ARES

This little bird did very well in tests, the cannon design kept the nose centered from the gas porting, as well as kept some of the issues the A10 had with gas/etc down to a minimum.  It could turn nearly 40 degrees per second, even more, and had a huge fuel fraction and 1200 mile range easy.  Very, very simple to maintain and repair, and very cheap to procure.

I wonder with an engine 20 years newer and more powerful, and with modern 25mm ammunition, and some of the great light attack missiles out there like the small diameter bomb, hellfire, and others, how effective this thing could be as a CAS and infantry/army light support aircraft.  In an area where air supremacy exists, but there is still ample ground threats (ie Iraq and Afghanistan types of conflicts), something along this line, not exactly like this, but following the overall idea, could be a cheap alternative to using F35s to replace A10s and other CAS mission aircraft.

Some great 25mm strafe footage, and at 4:20 some fantastic maneuverability footage.  By all accounts from the couple of webpages I read it did very well in terms of accuracy with it's gun runs and reliability.  Sort of like a more maneuverable A4 Skyhawk with a way better gun option and better range. 

Title: Re: Anyone remember the Ares A10 CAS supplemental a/c from the 90s?
Post by: GScholz on September 21, 2014, 09:17:04 PM

It's an Me 263 !!!  :rofl  (Obscure movie reference...)

Rutan's little CAS plane does look a bit flimsy... And for that low weight and simplicity wouldn't a typical turbo-prop CAS/COIN plane make more sense? Something like the Pucara perhaps.

Title: Re: Anyone remember the Ares A10 CAS supplemental a/c from the 90s?
Post by: Gman on September 22, 2014, 01:55:23 AM

Apparently it WAS powered by a turbo prop initially - in one of the links the case was made for why the small jet engine was better, albeit somewhat more $ I would imagine.

Title: Re: Anyone remember the Ares A10 CAS supplemental a/c from the 90s?
Post by: DaveBB on September 22, 2014, 05:54:11 AM

You can see the nose kick to the left pretty severely every time the 25mm cannon is fired in the HUD footage.

Title: Re: Anyone remember the Ares A10 CAS supplemental a/c from the 90s?
Post by: GScholz on September 22, 2014, 07:40:50 AM

A personal favorite is the OV-10 Bronco of Vietnam fame. I hear Boeing is working on a modernized version (OV-10X)...

(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/26232318/AH/ov-10x-super-bronco.jpg)

Title: Re: Anyone remember the Ares A10 CAS supplemental a/c from the 90s?
Post by: BuckShot on September 23, 2014, 11:59:20 AM

Thanks for posting. The ARES is a new one for me. Neat plane.