It's a good thing to bring it home.'Įqually excited are the Fairchild Republic retirees who had worked on the plane, a group of whom gathered at the museum Friday.Įlliot Kazan, 86, of Dix Hills, director of the A-10 program for Fairchild Republic, said, 'This is great. It's exciting because I flew out of that airport a couple of times for the Jones Beach air show and it's the birthplace of the A-10.

The pilot said having the plane in a museum rather than in mothballs 'is great. He said he flew A-10s from 2003 until 2011 and spent two years with a demonstration team performing at air shows. Johnnie Green, currently based in Hawaii, was one of its pilots, with more than 2,000 hours in its cockpit.

It had flown in South Korea where Air Force Maj. It had flown until 2011 and then was used for training mechanics before going into storage earlier this year. The museum's Warthog came from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona. It had redundant control systems: If one was destroyed by anti-aircraft fire, the pilot - protected by an inch-thick titanium steel 'bathtub' - could still fly the plane. The shells melt the metal armor and spray it around the interior of the tank, shredding everything inside. While it can carry bombs and missiles under its wings, its most daunting weapon is a 30-millimeter Gau multiple-barrel rotary cannon that can fire in a minute up to 6,000 rounds of depleted uranium armor-piercing shells. 'It was designed to fly around trees at low altitude.' 'It does not fly extremely fast,' up to about 350 miles an hour. 'The aircraft is essentially a flying tank,' Clyman said. The remaining manufacturing and final assembly were done in Hagerstown, Maryland. The fuselages and some other components were built in East Farmingdale. More than 300 of the Warthogs are still on active duty.

Production ended in 1984, three years before Fairchild Republic folded. By clicking Sign up, you agree to our privacy policy.įairchild Republic produced 716 A-10s starting in 1972 to combat the threat of Russian tanks during the Cold War.

New a 10 warthog design