FARNBOROUGH: Hawker Beechcraft flies in armed AT-6 testbed

 Flight International is carrying this article on the proposed AT-6 which crosses a T-6 Texan trainer with the mission package of an A-10  "Hog" .  The article sort of suggests that customers of an AT-6 would be getting a cut price Warthog.  Not so!  The heart of the Warthog is the gun, the GAU -8 Avenger.  An antitank gun firing DU 30 mm rounds at over 4,000 rounds per minute, powerful enough to shred the frontal armour of a main battle tank.  The gun, when firing, produces 10,000 lb of reverse thrust!  So you need a solid airframe and lots of thrust to carry it.

So a cut price tank buster...I don't think so!   A super hot COIN bird...maybe.



FARNBOROUGH: Hawker Beechcraft flies in armed AT-6 testbed: "What do you get when you cross a basic trainer with one of the world's most potent ground-attack aircraft? Hawker Beechcraft believes it has the answer,..."