I didn't take these, they were scanned from 8x10 color glossies the Navy gave me for some long forgotten reason. 1979-80 as a student in lovely Kingsville, Texas, recently rediscovered in the archives while looking for something else in the stately bullet riddled jungle manor doublewide.

I wish I could find stuff like that in my comfy double-wide. Nice A4 shots.

The third photo probably sounds something like...."Pew Pew Pew Pew..."

Most military rocket motors go off with a very big bang. LAW, RPG, etc. Not a whoosh or Pew.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpMvlRO9GBA

YouTube - 2.75 Inch Rockets

That 20mm cannon barrel you see in shot two can also be heard quite clearly in the cockpit.

Jungle:

Nice shots---you in any of them?

AZFlyer:

2.75-inch rockets are commonly called "Willy-Pete" for "White Phosphorous." So-called because phosphorous burns people in a very non-camera-friendly way; political caution was in vogue even during Vietnam.

Having shot probably 2-300 hundred of these things (from the OV-10; mostly at Superior Valley range in the Mojave Desert), I can tell you they actually do go "PPFFFeeeeewwwwwsssssshhhhh!!!"when you shoot. Sounds (and smells) like a glorified bottle-rocket (if you kids even know what bottle-rockets are). The rockets made a bright white smoke cloud about 100 ft in diameter and 200 ft tall. FACs used them to mark a target to guide the fighters to the bad guys, while avoiding bombing the good guys.

Having also played Ground-FAC at Leech Lake tactical bomb range (north side of Fort Irwin; same desert) I can tell you the WP warhead makes a muffled "pop" or "thump" when it blows up. (Admittedly, I was about 2 km away). Not nearly as impressive as the sound (or sight) of 500, 1000, or 2000 lb bombs, nor the 30mm of the A-10 (which makes two sounds; the sound of the bullets and their shock wave, and then you hear the sound of the gun-gasses escaping the barrel). When you've heard it, you'll never forget it---unless you're on the receiving end.

FYI: The gun Jungle is talking about is under the intake, on the belly; a single barrel. (I'm guessing one on each side). NOT the refueling probe!!

Some are WP and some are HE, they always sounded like booms to me.

The cannon is in the wing root and the training command only gave you one, fleet A-4s carried two. My first A-4 gun pass was aborted because a 172 was flying directly across the bullseye, good planning on his part.

Being close to a bomb drop can make your pants legs flutter, not a bad thing, but you know you don't want to be closer.

More antiques:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAplC...eature=related

Nice shots Jungle. I was an instructor in VT-21 from 1983 - 1986. Lots of great memories.

Not trying to one up anybody here, but I think we all like the super soaker on the A-10:

YouTube - A-10 Gatling Gun Test

Everyone I ever knew just loved the Scooter. Wish I had flown it during my nav career, but alas, deregulation and massive hiring and airlines not hiring retired military in the late 70s happened. The siren song........ I'll do everyone a favor and not scan and post my T-28 formation shots from '75.