First there was this gun …

It was developed by General Electric, the “We bring good things to life” people.  It’s one of the modern-day Gatling guns. It shoots very big bullets. It shoots them very quickly.

Someone said, “Let’s put it in an airplane.”

Someone else said, “Better still, let’s build an airplane around it.”

So they did. And “they” were the Fairchild-Republic airplane people.

And they had done such a good job with an airplane they developed back in WWII …
 
…called the P-47 Thunderbolt, they decided to call it the A10 Thunderbolt.
They made it so it was very good at flying low and slow and shooting things with that fabulous gun.

But since it did fly low and slow, they made it bulletproof, or almost so. A lot of bad guys have found you can shoot an A10 with anything from a pistol to a 23mm Soviet cannon and it just keeps on flying and shooting.

When they got through, it looked like this …

It’s not sleek and sexy like an F18 or the stealthy Raptors and such, but I think it’s such a great airplane because it does what it does better than any other plane in the world.

It kills tanks.

Not only tanks, as Saddam Hussein‘s boys found out to their horror, but armored personnel carriers, radar stations, locomotives, bunkers, fuel depots … Just about anything the bad guys thought was bulletproof turned out to be easy pickings for this beast.

See those engines. One of them alone will fly this puppy. The pilot sits in a very thick titanium alloy “bathtub.”

That’s typical of the design.

They were smart enough to make every part the same whether mounted on the left side or right side of the plane, like landing gear, for instance.

Because the engines are mounted so high (away from ground debris) and the landing gear uses such low pressure tires, it can operate from a damaged airport, interstate highway, plowed field, or dirt road.

Everything is redundant. They have two of almost everything. Sometimes they have three of something. Like flight controls. There’s triple redundancy of those,  and even if there is a total failure of the double hydraulic system, there is a set of manual flying controls.

Capt. Kim Campbell sustained this damage over Baghdad and flew for another hour before returning to base. But, back to that gun …

It’s so hard to grasp just how powerful it is.

This is the closest I could find to showing you just what this cartridge is all about. What the guy is holding is NOT the 30mm round, but a “little” .50 Browing machine-gun round and the 20mm cannon round which has been around for a long time.

The 30mm is MUCH bigger.

Down at the bottom are the .50 BMG and 20×102 Vulcan the fellow was holding. At the bottom right is the bad boy we’re discussing.

Let’s get some perspective here: The .223 Rem (M16 rifle round) is fast. It shoots a 55 or so grain bullet at about 3300 feet/sec, give or take. It’s the fastest of all those rounds shown (except one). When you move up to the ..30 caliber rounds, the bullets jump up in weight to 160-200 grains. Speeds run from about 2600 to 3000 FPS or so.

The .338 Lapua is the king of the sniper rifles these days and shoots a 350 grain bullet at 2800 FPS or so. They kill bad guys at over a mile with that one.

The .50 BMG is really big. Mike Beasley has one on his desk. Everyone who picks it up thinks it’s some sort of fake, unless they know big ammo. It’s really huge with a bullet that weighs 750 grains and goes as fast the Lapua.

I don’t have data on the Vulcan, but hang on to your hat.

The bullet for the 30×173 Avenger has an aluminum jacket around a spent uranium core and weighs 6560 grains (yes, over 100 times as heavy as the M16 bullet, and flies through the air at 3500 FPS (which is faster than the M16 as well).

The gun shoots at a rate of 4200 rounds per minute. Yes, four thousand. Pilots typically shoot either one- or two-second burst which set loose 70 to 150 rounds. The system is optimized for shooting at 4,000 feet.

OK, the best for last.

You’ve got a pretty good idea of how big that cartridge is, but I’ll bet you’re like me and you don’t fully appreciate how big the GA GAU-8 Avenger really is.

Take a look …

Each of those seven barrels is 112″ long. That’s almost ten feet. The entire gun is 19-1/2 feet long.

Think how impressive it would look set up in your living room.

Oh, by the way, it doesn’t eject the empty shells but runs them back into the storage drum. There’s just so dang many flying out, they felt it might damage the aircraft.
 
Oh yeah, I forgot, they can hang those bomb and rocket things on ‘em too, just in case.  After all, it is an “airplane”!

Like I said, this is a beautiful design.

 
I’m glad it’s ours!

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By 1837 the states of Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama passed laws making it a felony to kill a person with a Bowie knife. Self defense was recognized and acceptable. But even if you justifiably saved your life using a Bowie, you were going to spend considerable time behind bars or outside breaking rocks with a sledge.

No such jeopardy resulted from using one of the unreliable, single shot, black powder pistols of that era. Mississippi even put a $100 dollar sales tax on the Bowie. Why the political hostility to the Bowie? Because it was quite simply the deadliest weapon, certainly the deadliest knife, the anyone had ever seen. It remains so to this day.

The legislators reasoned that if you shot someone there was a fair chance the party might survive. Many did. But with a well made Bowie a single properly delivered strike, whether a thrust, slash, or chop was not survivable. Forget the Hollywood choreography of lengthy knife fights. One well delivered blow from the Bowie and the fight was finished, as was the recipient. So, the thinking-if it can be called that-was that it was okay to defend your life, but don’t defend it too well. That wouldn’t be fair. Go figure.

Bowie knives attained great popularity and were carried by large numbers of soldiers during the Civil War, especially by our Southern lads. But with the rapid deployment of revolvers there was less need for a formidable back up weapon. The Bowie went into decline but never came close to disappearing.

Today few knife makers and martial artists understand the unique geometry of a Bowie. Nor do they understand the physics which result from that geometry. One who does is Bill Bagwell, a master blade smith and specialist in battle blades. He not only makes some of the best Bowies available, he has given highly rated knife instruction to our Special Forces.

In his book, Bowies, Big Knives, and the best of Battle Blades, Bagwell reveals the requirements and the magic of a properly made Bowie. Properly made means of correct size (a minimum blade of 9 ½ in.), near perfect balance including a suitable guard and handle with a sharpened false edge and properly shaped point. The false edge is on the top part of the blade parallel to the primary edge and running back from the tip.

The point on most knives is what is called a trailing point. Because of the sharpened false edge, the point of the Bowie becomes a leading point upon delivering the devastating back cut. The effect of the back cut should be seen to be appreciated. But the back cut itself cannot be seen, and if it could be seen it would still be impossible to avoid it!

Mr. Bagwell explains that the speed of the back cut is so fast that the human eye can’t see it. To illustrate this he offers a demonstration we can do on our own. Stick your arm out full length and palm down. Now make a fist but let your thumb stick out at a 90 degree angle. If you are right handed your thumb will be pointed to the left. Slowly rotate your thumb into the vertical position. You are giving the “thumbs up” sign. Snap your thumb back to the horizontal as quickly as you can. You will be unable to see your thumb traversing that arc.

It turns out that our eyes blink in .15 second and the human eye cannot pick up any motion that occurs more quickly than it blinks. The back cut occurs in under .15 second.

Why does the true Bowie need to be so large with a blade no less than 9 1/2 inches? There is the obvious advantage of reach. Maybe you recall from school days that a longer lever multiplies the force applied to it. But wait! There’s more, as they say on TV. Velocity is also multiplied along with the force. These are significant advantages when using a blade for serious social purposes. Despite its size, the well made Bowie is light in the hand and ferociously quick and nimble.

There are many more significant attributes of the Bowie beyond what is covered here. You will find any number of books about the Bowie, but I recommend you begin with the writings of Bill Bagwell. He knows the Bowie. He lives the Bowie.

- Quick Steel

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If you are looking for professional grade power tools that are priced so that even non-professionals can afford them then you may want to check out Ryobi power tools.

Even if you are only considering the purchase of a Ryobi tool you can contact their customer service department and they will go above and beyond to answer all of your questions. And, if you happen to have only one or two small tools you will still be treated like a valuable customer.

Any hobby or remodeling job is made much easier when you choose Ryobi tools as their research and technical department are constantly looking for ways to improve existing tools and come up with innovative new ideas. This means that no matter what tool you are using you can be sure that you are using good quality equipment. They have manuals that not only tell you how to use the tools they also offer a help section for assistance in your projects. If you can’t find what you are looking for simply contact customer service and they will find the answer.

One of the most innovative of Ryobi’s tools is the 18 volt battery that will fit all of the power tools, not just one or two. Of course you can buy a battery for each tool this will definitely save you some money; you can always buy two so that you can switch to different tasks without having to switch the battery each time you need a tool as you will normally not be using more than one or two at a time.

Check out their website where you can download a catalog where it is easy to search for a particular tool or to just check them all out and to see what new things they have in mind.

With spring and summer fast approaching it is time to start thinking about your yard and gardening tools replacing or repairing as necessary. Backyard tools can only work so well without having any type of maintenance; if your hose leaks you will waste water and money, etc. Here are a few tips on what you can do to ensure that your yard tools are in good working order.

Start with the lawnmower as it is one of the major yard tools and change the filter if you have not done so since last year; if it is a paper filter then replace it, otherwise you can take it out and clean it with soapy warm water. After disconnecting the spark plug turn it over on its side and clean out the old debris and grass, using a screwdriver or something similar for difficult clumps. You can also use the water hose to help spray it clean; using a disinfecting cleaner if your yard had any kind of a fungus.

Another one of the backyard tools to check is the gardening water hose, check it carefully for cracks and holes. If you only have a minor crack or hole you can choose to repair it using something like plumbing tape but check it often to be sure that it holds and doesn’t leak. If you use more than one hose then be sure to check the washers where the two connect together; you can pick up replacement washers at any hardware or home store.

Weed-eaters are also yard tools that come in very handy; the amount of area that you need to edge and the number of plants or trees that you need to get around has a lot to do with the type of weed-eater that you should get. Your local home store can offer valuable advice on which model to get as well as the pros and cons of gas or electric ones. Just be sure that the base guard and the handle are on securely before starting so that they do not fly off or slip while operating it.

Your supply of gardening backyard tools should also include some kind of hedge clippers; to ensure that the blades are sharp use heavy gauge grit sandpaper or take them to a shop to have them sharpened in order to keep your shrub lines clean.