Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire CAS concept aircraft way ahead of it's time.

Built around the GAU-12 20mm gun,highly maneuverable,redundant flight controls and the DOD could have bought a pile for one F-35 or 22. Its certainly not an A-10 but had merits for lighter sandbox duties IMO.

[video:youtube]chttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG9LlHcX8lg[/video]

With canards, of course. I wonder what the Century deltas could have done, aka KFIRs, with same.

Cute.

No provisions for aerial refueling.

Lawn dart...

Indeed a big disadvantage but I like the concept using the GAU-12 instead of mini gun pods.

And apparently still flying

http://aviationintel.com/rutans-ares-emerges-from-paul-allens-hangar-at-kbfi/

Do either of these aircraft have any hard protection? I am guesing both fall far short of the A10 with regards survivability..

Everything falls short when compared to the A-10

I bet they fall short compared to the original A1 Skyraider!

The fall short of it gents is neither one will ever be produced again which opens a gaping hole in CAS if something new and cheaper doesn't appear on the horizon. Committing a high ticket air frame like the F-35 for close quarters CAS is beyond me..if one wants redundancy this isn't a winning ticket IMO.

Not a pilot. Would this have the ability mount mini guns? Seems to me that having both mini's and cannon would make a more effective plane. big gun vs lots of ammo. Asking your opinion.

Yes it would have external hard points and 7.62 pods could be fitted for extra fire power.

The point is that these concept aircraft, whilst being relatively cheap, fall far short of what is required for CAS..

We need a modern A100 based on the pedigree of the A1 and A10, not an over grown Airfix model with a cannon in it!

We're really only lacking the will to do it.

I totally agree the ordinance capability is lacking at best and pilot protection is zero.I'm not on a soap box for this pea shooter but think it's a much better concept with appropriate avionics than the PA-48 or EMB Super Tucano where ground threats are minimal.I think its strength envelope is nothing more than a highly maneuverable gun platform.

I can see mini guns on a helicopter, but it seems that they are too much of a short range weapon for an attack airplane. Seems like if you have to be within 1000 yds or 1/2 that distance before squeezing the trigger that would be extra close air support.

I can't help but wonder if we aren't moving toward a type of CAS specific drone...

Seems there could be a lot of advantages to that concept.

We've sold quite a few of these to M.E. Countries :

Home | www.802u.com

Don't know if they're the same or just similar models but we've got crop dusters out here that look a LOT like that plane!

Looks like fun!

All the smaller aircraft make sense in certain areas, but the A-10 is designed to survive hits from AAA and even small shoulder fired missiles if I am remembering correctly. IN a battlezone where folks are shooting back with stuff that would take down a helicopter or one of the lighter counter insurgency type planes, the A10's armored design has been proven repeatedly. Some newer aircraft ought to be built, similar to an A-10, maybe put a 20 or 25 mm gun on it instead of a 30 mm, but still a huge ordnance capacity, high mounted protected engines, and armor over everything vital.