Last year we wrote a blog about The Warning, a statue honoing two motor officers who came to be known as the Paul Reveres of Santa Paula. The statue was an unanticipated discovery on a motorcycle ride through Santa Paula, and it had my attention because it’s not the kind of monument you see every day.
The other night Sue and I were flipping through the movies on Amazon Prime, and to my great surprise one I had not seen before popped up: The Forgotten Tragedy: The Story of the St. Francis Dam.
You know, I’m embarrassed to admit that when I first saw that statue in Santa Paula 10 years ago, I had never heard of the St. Francis Dam and its collapse. I grew up on the east coast, and there’s a lot we never heard about back there. It took a little digging for me to learn about California’s second largest disaster ever (the only event involving greater loss of life in the Golden State was the San Francisco earthquake), so the idea of a movie on the St. Francis Dam and its collapse had my immediate attention. The Forgotten Tragedy is a documentary and it’s very well done. It even included a bit about the motorcycle officers in the above statue (although it only mentioned one).
Trust me on this, my friends. The Forgotten Tragedy: The Story of the St. Francis Dam is worth viewing.
It’s not every day you get to see a new 2020 Suzuki Katana for the first time, and it’s certainly not every day you get living legend and motojournalist extraordinaire Kevin Duke to take a photo of you standing next to it. Yesterday was that day for me, and the photo you see above was a shot Kevin grabbed of yours truly with the new Katana. I was visiting with the boys at CSC Motorcycles, Kevin was there, and he volunteered to let me take a ride on the Katana. I took a pass on that, but when he asked me to pose with the bike, hey, I figured Suzuki needs all the help they can get. Not that they need any from me. The new Katana is a stunning motorcycle. Visually arresting, I would call it.
We wrote about the 2020 Katana in our Dream Bikes series last year, and at that time, I mentioned that I owned one of the original Katanas in 1982. Mine was Serial Number 241 of the first batch of 500 Suzuki built.
There’s 38 years between those two photos. Wow, that’s a scary thought. I think me and my good buddy Jack Daniel’s will have a talk about that later tonight.
Yours truly with my Triumph Tiger in Palomar, about 200 miles south of the border along Baja’s Transpeninsular Highway. I had a little bit of hair back in the day, and it was still brown. What’s left now is mostly gray.
Wow, here’s a find…a bunch of older print photos from a Baja trip my old Baja buddy John Welker and I did back in 2006. Man, times were different back then. We both rode big road bikes and we were both working for a living. What a difference 14 years can make. It was a quick 1100-mile weekend ride to Bahia de Los Angeles in the Baja peninsula. John has a house on the Sea of Cortez down there. He still owns it, and he spends several months each year in Mexico. I took my Triumph Tiger for its first long ride, John took his Yamaha Virago, and we had a great time. I guess that goes without saying. Any motorcycle trip to Baja is going to be great.
A Mexican truck driver on the Transpeninsular Highway, who was actually pretty friendly.
We stayed in San Vincente on the way down. It’s a cool little agricultural town along the Transpeninsular Highway, one of many in the agricultural district north of El Rosario. We saw a guy trying to buy beer in the restaurant in San Vincente that Friday night. There was a BMW GS in the hotel parking lot and I asked if it was his. Yep, it was, and Peter introduced himself to me. The restaurant didn’t serve beer, but I went across the street to pick up a couple of sixpacks of Tecate. I asked Peter to join us for dinner, and he did. He’s from Canada (eh?), and he was touring Mexico and the US for a month or two.
Our new GS-mounted good buddy Peter in San Vincente, along with good buddy Annie. Peter said he was looking for a Starbuck’s and got lost. I think there may be a Starbuck’s down there now.That’s Deema, Annie, John, and Peter. It was a grand dinner. Deema and Annie drove down in Annie’s car on this trip.
On Saturday, the next morning, John and I ran into a fog bank about 250 miles south of the border. Visibility was so bad I couldn’t see the ground beneath me, so I pulled over to wait it out.
I grabbed this shot of my Triumph in the fog.And another. There was nothing else to do until the fog lifted. The Tiger was a very photogenic motorcycle.
Mexico’s Highway 1 (the Transpeninsular Highway) follows the Pacific coast and then turns inland at El Rosario. Mama Espinoza’s is a classic Mexican restaurant known for their lobster burritos. I had a chicken burrito for lunch and, as always, it was the best one I ever had. I made it a point to stop there on the way back the next day and I had the same thing.
We always feel welcome at Mama Espinoza’s.A sculpture outside Mama Espinoza’s.
South of El Rosario, it gets real desolate real fast. That’s the Valle de los Cirios, and it’s one of the prettiest spots on the peninsula. The roads are spectacular. Fast sweepers, long straights, and no traffic. There’s just the odd cow or wild burro in the road.
A typical view in the Valle de los Cirios.Another stop along the Transpeninsular Highway. The Triumph Tiger was a great machine for this kind of riding, especially with its comfortable riding position and a range exceeding 200 miles.
After the Valle de Los Cirios, it was desert down to Catavina and beyond. There are remote truck stops, lots of desert, and just great riding. I’ve got to get back down there again sometime soon.
A truck stop out in the middle of nowhere.We stopped briefly in Catavina, where John couldn’t tear himself away from this rather talkative guy. John and I have put a lot of miles on our motorcycles in Mexico. The scenery is great. The people you might are even more fun.
At Punta Prieta, after traveling on Highway 1 for about 360 miles, we made a left turn and headed east across the Baja peninsula.
This was our destination…Bahia de Los Angeles.Triumph called the Tiger’s color Caspian Blue, presumably named after the Caspian Sea. This wasn’t the Caspian Sea (it’s the Sea of Cortez), but I’d say the color match is pretty good.
John’s house on the Sea of Cortez. John picked a moonless weekend so that we could take in the stars, and the night sky was awesome.
Every motorcycle trip needs an obligatory artsy fartsy shot. This was mine from our 2006 Bahia de Los Angeles ride.
John’s house is literally right on the Sea of Cortez. It’s a pretty cool place.
Casa de Welker, on Bahia de Los Angeles.John telling a fish story in his front yard.Our dinner choice that Saturday night. The fish tacos were impressive, as was the Tecate. Life is good down there in Baja.
John keeps an old VW microbus in Bahia de Los Angeles that came with the house when he bought it. The lights on the VW didn’t work back in 2006 (I imagine John has them working now). We had dinner in town and realized the sun had set. No lights. No moon. Dirt roads through the Baja desert. We realized we were in a pickle. But, John had an idea. And a flashlight. Annie hung out the window with that flashlight and sort of lit the way. It was an old flashlight with a limp battery, and it didn’t really light up anything. But we didn’t care. It was a fun evening.
The original Baja bug. LIghts? We don’t need no stinkin’ lights!Candy, the Chihuaha from Peru. In Mexico. That little pup ran the show.A sculpture on John’s house.
There’s no light pollution down there in Bahia de Los Angeles. I slept on the roof and it was magnificent. I’ve never seen stars as vivid nor as plentiful as they were that night. And the next morning, I was up before sunrise, so I was able to set up my camera and get a cool photo of the sun rising over the Sea of Cortez.
A shot from John’s roof looking east over the Sea of Cortez.
I rode back the next morning by myself…John was staying at his place a couple of extra days, but I had to get back for work. Work. Man, those days seem so far in the past now.
The ride back was a good one. It’s nice to ride with friends; it’s also nice to ride on your own. I do some of my best thinking when I’m riding by myself. I need to do more of it.
I grabbed this shot in one of the agricultural towns along Highway 1 on the way back to the US.
I shot all of the photos on this page with my F5 Nikon, and the 24-120 Nikon and 17-35 Sigma lenses. Back in the day, as film cameras went the Nikon F5 was a good as it ever got, and I got a lot of great shots with that camera. The thing was a tank and I don’t think I would want to lug it around today, but back then it was really something.
So there you have it. I’ve got a standing invitation from Baja John to ride down to Bahia de Los Angeles, and as I put this blog together and looked at these photos again, I think that’s what I’m going to do.
Two 5-shot groups I shot with my Compact RIA 1911 at 50 feet this weekend. I love the load, I love the Rock 1911, and I love the Pachmayr grips. These little snubbie 1911s are surprisingly accurate.
It’s no secret I’ve become a big admirer of the .45 ACP Rock Island Compact 1911. I worked through literally thousands of rounds and a number of personal preferences on mine and about the only thing left to mess around with was the grips. The standard wood grips on the Compact are okay, but I wanted better. The best grips I’d ever tried on any 1911 are the ones made by Pachmayr, and that’s what I wanted for my Rock.
It had been quite a few years since I bought a set of Pachmayr grips, and when I searched for them online I found that they appeared under the Lyman site. So I called Lyman. I learned Lyman acquired Pachmayr about 20 years go (shows how much I know, I guess). The guy on the phone was nice and he was able to answer my question, which was would their shorter grips fit the Rock Island Armory Compact’s frame (and the answer was yes).
Good buddy Greg had also purchased a Rock Compact based on my raving about it, and after Greg shot mine, he immediately purchased one for himself. Greg’s 1911 is completely unaltered (it has not had the custom work I had done on mine by good buddy TJ), but it shoots just as well. I had a few issues on mine; Greg’s had no issues or failures of any kind with his Compact 1911.
I told Greg a couple of weeks ago that I had ordered a set of Pachmayr grips for my Rock, and he ordered a set, too. I was out of town, so Greg got to shoot his Pachmayr-equipped Compact first. One of the Pachmayr grip emblems fell off on Greg’s gun his first time at the range with the new grips. That was not a good start. Greg has another full-sized 1911 with Hogue grips and he likes those, so he ordered a set of Hogues for the Compact. The Hogue grips have finger grooves in them, and Greg likes that feature. I don’t, but hey, different strokes for different folks.
Greg’s RIA Compact with Pachmayr grips.On his first range session with the Pachmayr grips, one of Greg’s grip emblems popped out. Mine hasn’t done that.Greg’s Compact 1911 with Hogue grips. Note the finger grooves. Note also that there’s no emblem to fall out.
I’ve been shooting my Compact 1911 with the Pachmayr grips and I love them. They give me a better grip on the little 1911 and I think they make the gun easier to shoot. And wow, it sure shoots well, especially with that 185-grain SWC bullet and the Bullseye load. That’s my go to load for this gun.
Where I’m going with all this is that this weekend I was able to try both Compact 1911s; one with the Pachmayr grips (that’s my gun) and one with the Hogue grips (Greg’s gun). Both feel great, but for me, the Pachmayr grips get the nod. They’re what I’m used to, I don’t care for finger grooves, and I like the checkered texture of the Pachmayr style. My grip emblems are staying put, so I haven’t had the issue Greg (and others, if you poke around a bit on the Internet) have had with theirs.
I shot a few targets on this past cold and windy Sunday morning at 50 feet, and I continue to be amazed at just how accurate the Compact 1911 is with my newly-discovered accuracy load (and that’s a 185-grain cast semi-wadcutter bullet over 5.0 grains of Bullseye with a CCI 300 primer). Surprisingly, Greg’s Compact fed the SWC bullets just as well as mine (my gun is throated and polished; Greg’s is in “as delivered” factory condition).
The bottom line? Either set of aftermarket grips is good (both the Hogues and the Pachmayrs). You wouldn’t be making a mistake with either.
One more thought: I think it would be cool if Rock Island offered the Pachmayr grips as an option with an inlaid Rock Island Armory emblem. That would work for me, and I’d buy the first pair if they ever offered them.
Want to see more on the Rock Compact, reloading .45 ACP ammo, and other shooting topics? There’s more good stuff here: Tales of the Gun!
The 1956 Mustang Colt. I had posted this on Facebook several years ago and forgot about it. Mr. Zuckerberg jogged my memory.
I’ll bet with that title you’re thinking I’m going to write about a couple of guns.
Nope. The subject is Colts, but these are Colts that were manufactured by the Mustang Motor Products Corporation. And the few of us who know what that means would just call the company “Mustang.”
The idea popped into my mind with one of those Facebook photos on my feed. You know, it’s one of the things Facebook does when they’re not spying on you…they suggest you repost a photo you posted in the past. They did, and that beautiful turquoise 1956 Colt you see above popped up on my Facebook account. I had posted it 6 or 7 years ago. Mark remembered.
Mustang is the company that made the hottest mini-motorcycles back in the 1950s. There were a lot of companies making small motorcycles in America back then, and then they all disappeared by the early 1960s. Mustang hung on into the 1960s, but they were done in by all those nice people you met on Hondas. And when Mustang went out of business, a young Ford exec named Lee Iacocca swept in to grab the Mustang name. A lot of folks thought that was weird in 1962. What was Ford going to do with a name like Mustang? What were they thinking?
The very first iteration of the Mustang…the 1946 Greeves-powered Colt.
There were actually two Mustang Colts. The first was the very first bike Mustang made in the late 1940s. It was a tiny little bike with a tiny little Greeves two-stroke motor, and that’s what did it in the first Colt. In those post-war years, Greeves needed every engine they could make for their own bikes in merry old England, and they cut Mustang off. Undeterred, Mustang bought the Busy Bee engine company in the US and they redesigned a new Mustang around the larger Busy Bee 322cc flathead 4-stroke single. The Busy Bee engine was actually used to power cement mixers before that, but Mustang wanted Busy Bee engines for their motorcycles, unaware of and uncaring about any future impact to Joe Gresh’s future concrete endeavors.
Another view of the ’46 Mustang Colt. It’s stunning, isn’t it?
Mustang revived the Colt moniker for the ’56 model (the one you see in the photo at the top of this blog and in the photo below), but it didn’t sell well and the folks who made Mustangs in California didn’t like the bike. The Mustang was a premium product, and the idea of a cheapened Mustang (no transmission, a centrifugal clutch, and no telescopic forks) didn’t set well with the customer base or the folks in the Mustang factory.
The ’56 Colt again. I love the colors and the look.
You might be wondering how I know the folks in the Mustang factory didn’t like the ’56 Colt. I heard it straight from the late Jim Cavanaugh, who was an advisor to CSC Motorcycles and the Production Superintendent at the original Mustang Motor Products Corporation.
A young Jim Cavanaugh in front of the Mustang factory.Another view of Jim and his crew back in the day…Jim is on the left in the second row.Jim Cavanaugh a few years before he passed away. Jim is on a custom CSC 150 Mustang replica, his personal bike.
Steve Seidner revived the Mustang concept with his line of CSC 150 and CSC 250 motorcycles. They were awesome. I rode mine along with a few of my friends (including Baja John) to Cabo San Lucas and back. Many of the CSC bikes were highly customized, including this 250 Steve thought was going to be his personal bike:
CSC called this one the P-51. It fit the motorcycle’s aviation motif and Mustang lineage.World War nose art on the P-51’s fuel tank. This motorcycle was going to be Steve Seidner’s bike, but when we put this photo on the CSC blog a guy called within minutes and made Steve an offer he couldn’t refuse. The CSC Mustangs went for high dollars. Folks would point out you could buy a Harley for that kind of money, but they just didn’t get it.
So, back to the original Colt Mustangs…I think both Colts are stunning motorcycles. What do you think?
Want to read about our trip to Cabo and back and CSC 150 motorcycles? It’s right here. And would you like to read the article Jim Cavanaugh and I wrote for Motorcycle Classics magazine on the original Mustangs? You can get to that one here.
A great riding group on a Baja ride: From left to right, it’s British novelist and world traveler Simon Gandolfi, Go Go Gear CEO Arlene Battishill, hunting buddy J Brandon, Baja John, and yours truly. John loves Baja so much he lives down there. This photo is in Santa Rosalia. That’s the Sea of Cortez in the background.
Yep, based on the Chinese zodiac, 2020 is the Year of the Rat. I suppose there are all kinds of jokes, organized crime and otherwise, that could be made of that, but let’s set all that aside. Good buddy Baja John (who wrote to me from Bahia de Los Angeles in Baja just a few days ago) had this much better suggestion:
Hey Joe,
So, I’m calling this year the “Year of Hindsight.” I was thinking that might be good fodder for a blog entry. Lessons to pass to younger readers or lessons that have helped you live happier in your senior years. Who knows. Popped into my head and thought I’d share.
John
I think that’s a grand idea, John, and I’m hoping our readers do, too. Hey, it’s 2020, and everyone knows that hindsight is 20-20. So, to all our readers (and our year end report tells us that our key demographic for ExhaustNotes readership is men aged 55 and over), you have the benefit of years of experience in all kinds of things. Let’s have your comments, please. What advice on any topic (love, life, money, politics, 9mm vs. .45, motorcycles, whatever) would you give younger folks?
The 147-grain 9mm Speer bullet next to a 124-grain cast roundnose bullet. Cool, huh?
Well, ol’ Gresh sure stirred up a hornet’s nest with that flat track blog yesterday. We nearly ran out of bandwidth!
On to a more metric subject: 9mm ammo.
I started the PRK 10-day cooling off period (you know, the People’s Republik of Kalifornia) for my new SIG P226 a couple of days ago. Let me tell you, if anybody thinks they are going to outlaw guns in California, they need to think again. I had to wait an hour and a half at our local Turner’s Sporting Goods store just to start the process. There were five guys working the gun counter and customers were lined up five deep. There were a ton of folks buying and picking up guns. Trying to outlaw guns in America is a nonstarter, even here in looney leftwing California.
This man had some of the best comments ever. “They know so much that just isn’t so” ranks high on my list.
Okay, enough of the rant about my friends who know so much that just isn’t so, to borrow a phrase from one of the greats, and on to the subject of this blog: Getting ready for the 9mm accuracy load development program I spoke about a few days ago. Like I said earlier, my standard 9mm accuracy load for years has been 5.0 grains of Unique behind a 125-grain cast bullet, but as part of my New Year’s resolutions I am moving in two directions simultaneously: I’m expanding my horizons in the 9mm world and I’m reducing my waistline. The waistline story can wait for another day; today’s topic is the loads I’m crafting for inclusion in the 9mm Comparo.
I’m going to evaluate three or four different 9mm handguns and several different loads, and I’ve started reloading the ammo for that. The first four loads I’ve already crafted are with two different bullets I haven’t tried before: The 147-grain Speer truncated metal jacket bullet, and the 115-grain Armscor FMJ bullet. The 147-grain Speer bullets are really cool looking. If they shoot half as good as they look I’ll be driving tacks with my new SIG!
A box of Speer 147-grain TMJ bullets. These are long bullets compared to what I normally shoot. They do look good.One of the 147-grain Speers ready for seating in a charged 9mm case.Another angle. Some of you folks get it. Stuff like this is beautiful. I mean, look at it: Polished brass, Unique propellant, and full metal jacket, heavy-for-caliber bullets. Life is good, folks. These loads are at 3.9 grains and 4.4 grains.
Seating the bullets is always cool, too. It’s where it all comes together.
On the way up, Rockchucker style……and on the way down. A new cartridge is born!
The finished rounds look great. Now the question is: Are they accurate? We’ll see. This is the first time I’ve tried a bullet this heavy in a 9mm.
You can’t think about the time you spend reloading ammo compared to the cost of factory 9mm ammo. It would be too depressing. We do it for the sheer enjoyment of making something. We’re recyclers. Maybe that’s why RCBS reloading gear is green. Al Gore and Ms. Thunberg have nothing on us!
I seated the Speer bullets to the recommended depth for an overall cartridge length of 1.120 inches. I’m trying a couple of different propellant charges. I can experiment with seating depth to find the best accuracy later if this combo shows promise.
I know. It’s an obsession. But it’s fun.
But wait: There’s more! I also picked up another bullet I had not tried yet, the Armscor 115 FMJ (full metal jacket) roundnose bullets. They are cool, too, and they were only $10 for a bag of 100 pills.
Armscor is the same company that makes Rock Island Armory guns, like my Compact 1911.
I’ve shot brass-jacketed FMJ bullets before, but that was in my .45 when I bought bulk Remington ammo just to get the brass cases (you know, so I could shoot them up and reload them later). These are good looking bullets, too.
Brass jacketed Armscor 9mm bullets. We’ll see how these do. I like the look..
The charges listed in my loading manuals for a 115-grain jacketed bullet with Unique propellant seemed to hover around a max of 5.5 grains with a minimum of 4.8 grains, so I prepped two loads, one at 5.4 grains and one at 5.0 grains.
5.4 grains of Unique in primed 9mm cases. You can’t load too much more; this charge nearly takes up the entire case volume. With the bullets seated, this will become what we call a compressed load. Unique is what is known as a flake powder…the individual grains are tiny flakes of propellant.
Here’s a cool shot of the finished Armscor load. I like the way these look. It’s like being the Lone Ranger, but with gold instead of silver bullets. Hi Yo SIG, away! (Cue in the William Tell Overture.)
Ready for accuracy testing. This, too, is nice looking ammunition.
If you are not a reloader yet, you might want to think about getting into it. To me, reloading is as much fun as shooting. And if you want to learn how to do it, take a look at our series on reloading .45 ACP ammo on the Tales of the Gun page!
The Gatling Gun, a book that tells the story of the original Gatling guns, their transition to modern gun systems, and several of the weapons platforms currently using Gatlings. It has been one of my most successful books ever. The Gatling Gun was picked up as the Book of the Month by the Military Book Club shortly after its publication and that made for a very healthy sales spike (and that was okay by me). It seems that every job I had after finishing college had something to do with Gatlings. I was on the Vulcan gun system in the Army. I was on the F-16 design team, an aircraft that flew with a 20mm Gatling. I worked on the Phalanx Close-In Weapon System at General Dynamics here in California. I was the Director of Engineering in the company that manufactured 30mm A-10 ammo. There’s more, but you get the idea.
Writing The Gatling Gun was a hell of a lot of fun, including visits to the Connecticut State Library (where the original Gatling and Colt archives, and many of the early Gatling guns, are stored). I handled original documents prepared by Samuel Colt and Dr. Gatling (and in the process, I became a licensed State of Connecticut historian). It was a hoot.
Of all the modern Gatling-equipped weapons of war, the most powerful is the A-10 Warthog, an aircraft armed with the mighty 30mm GAU-8/A Avenger cannon. Working for Aerojet, the company that manufactured the A-10’s 30mm ammunition, was one of the best jobs I ever had.
Today’s blog includes The Gatling Gun chapter on the A-10. I think you’ll enjoy it.
Chapter 11: The A-10 Thunderbolt Story
As the column of Soviet armored vehicles rolled across the open Eastern European plain, the lumbering sound of diesel engines and clanking treads drowned out all else. Russian infantrymen struggled to keep up, shouting to (but not hearing) each other. Suddenly, a roar different than that emanating from the tanks engulfed everything. It sounded like a powerful internal combustion engine (perhaps that of a race car) running at full throttle. The infantrymen started dropping as the tanks slowed to a stop. From the rear of the column, and working toward the front at an incredible rate, the ground erupted all around in 10-meter-wide explosions. Three of the tanks burst into flames, one blowing its turret off the hull. Black smoke was everywhere. An A-10 passed overhead, its 30mm Avenger gun continuing to roar, throwing out high-velocity depleted uranium penetrators and a 20-foot-long muzzle flash. The aircraft swung low as it passed the column. One of the infantrymen not killed in the first pass realized that the devilish craft was circling for another pass, and in addition to feeling raw terror, he suddenly felt very ill.
Of all the Gatling-gun-equipped aircraft flying today, one of the most intriguing is the A-10 Thunderbolt II. Nicknamed the Warthog by the crews who fly it, the A-10 is the first airplane designed from the ground up around a Gatling gun. It carries the most powerful Gatling gun ever built.
The Close Air Support Problem
The need for the Thunderbolt II and its very specialized mission was recognized during the conflicts in Korea and Vietnam. In these conflicts, U.S. aircraft were the best in the world for air-to-air combat. In the Korean War, these superb fighters included the F-86 Sabre, F-84 Thunderjet, F-80 Shooting Star, and F9F Panther. The F-4 Phantom, the F-111, the F-8, the A-7, and several others saw action in the Vietnam War. Vietnam-era tactical aircraft included such features as supersonic speeds, terrain-following radar, computer-assisted weapon delivery systems, and even such things as exotic as wings with adjustable sweep angles. One problem with these aircraft, however, was that they were designed primarily for air-to-air combat. This made them less than ideal for close-air-support missions (which support ground troops by engaging enemy ground targets). Having been designed for air-to-air combat, they had to be fast and maneuverable, and capable of flying at high altitudes. This placed constraints on the amount and kinds of ordnance that could be carried. Their high speed also meant the airplanes had a high stall speed, which detracted from accurately delivering ground fire.
In the close-air-support role, where the pilot would be required to engage ground targets in close proximity to friendly troops, inaccurate delivery systems were unacceptable. Most of the aircraft that flew in Vietnam were designed with late 1950s and early 1960s technology. During that era, vulnerability to small-arms ground fire was not recognized as a key design parameter. Unfortunately, this is precisely the environment in which close-air support aircraft must operate. In the Vietnam War, more U.S. aircraft were downed by small-arms fire than by any other means. There is even a confirmed case of an F-4 Phantom being shot down by a single rifle bullet.
The A-10 Warthog firing its 30mm Avenger cannon. This aircraft was actually designed around its powerful Gatling cannon. Each 30mm round has more muzzle energy than a World War II 75mm Howitzer!
The most significant drawback of existing close-air-support aircraft (i.e., those used in the close-air-support role prior to the advent of the A-10) was that they were ineffective against tanks. With enemy armor being one of the main threats to NATO forces in the European theater, military planners recognized that an aircraft with new capabilities was required.
The A-X Requirements
The close-air-support deficiencies the United States had observed during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts defined the need for the A-X aircraft in the mid-1960s (A-X stands for “Attack Experimental”). The air force initially envisioned a turbo-prop aircraft. The idea was that a current-technology version of the World War II Thunderbolt would best satisfy the requirements (note that World War II vintage Thunderbolts were used in a close-air-support role in Vietnam). The A-X specification was based primarily on deficiencies in existing aircraft. One of the requirements was an extremely accurate ordnance delivery system, because friendly ground troops could be within yards of the enemy. A high payload was also needed. As explained earlier, most existing tactical aircraft had been designed to maximize either maneuverability, speed, altitude, or some combination of these parameters. Payload had necessarily suffered.
The A-X aircraft also had to be able to remain in the air near the target for long periods of time, which is referred to as “loiter capability.” Existing tactical aircraft had been designed to operate at high altitudes. When flying at the low altitudes associated with close-air-support missions, they consumed excessive amounts of fuel. This translated to short loiter capabilities, which detracted from the effectiveness of close-air-support missions.
The air force also stipulated that the new A-X aircraft needed to have good “survivability” characteristics, meaning it should be relatively invulnerable to small-arms fire from the ground. To ensure that the aircraft met this requirement, the air force specified armor protection, redundant flight-control systems, and fire-suppression equipment.
The Armor Threat
The main requirement for the A-X aircraft, however, was that it be able to contribute significantly to the NATO defense of Eastern Europe, and that meant it had to be able to defeat tanks. (The Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies had tens of thousands of tanks deployed along the East-European frontier. In any European combat scenario, the United States and the nations of Western Europe would have had to be able to defeat these tanks.)
To meet this threat, the United States developed (and continues to develop) many antitank weapons. These include shoulder-fired antitank weapons, large-caliber recoilless rifles, aircraft-delivered missiles and bombs, smart munitions, and several other systems. No U.S. aircraft, however, carried a gun system capable of defeating Soviet tanks.
The Flyoff Competition
In 1967 the U.S. Air Force solicited proposals from twenty-one companies to build a prototype A-X aircraft. After evaluating all of the proposals, it selected Northrop and Fairchild Republic as contenders to enter the final phase of the competition. As part of a new procurement policy, it funded both companies to develop aircraft meeting the A-X specifications. After Northrop and Fairchild finished building the prototypes, the air force conducted extensive tests prior to making a decision. During the competition, Northrop teamed with Ford Aerospace and Communications Company. Ford built the gun used in the Northrop aircraft, which was designated the A-9. Unfortunately for both Northrop and Ford, the Ford gun experienced many problems during the test program, including blowing up on at least one occasion. The antitank gun was the primary weapon for the A-X aircraft, and because the Ford gun (which was also based on the Gatling principle) performed poorly, the outlook for the Northrop A-9 was bleak.
A tank struck by GAU-8/A ammunition from the A-10 Thunderbolt. The GAU-8/A ammunition includes a mix of high explosive and depleted uranium projectiles.
Fairchild Republic teamed with the General Electric Armament Division to build the A-10. The A-10 carried a new 30mm version of the Gatling gun named the “Avenger,” which was based on the older 20mm Vulcan but was much more powerful. When General Electric became involved with the A-X program, it had nearly twenty years of development and production history with Gatling guns of various configurations. This experience was apparent during the test program, and the 30mm Avenger performed superbly. The A-10 rapidly demonstrated that it was a superior aircraft. The prototype flyoff competition ended in late 1972, and the A-10 was selected for a planned production run of 600 aircraft.
The A-10 Thunderbolt II
The A-10 Thunderbolt II is unlike any aircraft in the U.S. inventory. It is quite unconventional in appearance when compared to other tactical jet aircraft, and for good reason. One notably different aspect of the A-10 is its unswept wings. The stubby wings are straight to allow flying at the very low speeds required for the close-air-support role. Another striking difference is the location of the engines, which are mounted high above the rear fuselage. There are two reasons for this. One is better protection from enemy small-arms fire. Another is that the rear fuselage masks the engines’ heat signature, providing better protection from heat-seeking missiles.
The GAU-8/A 30mm Gatling gun. The size and power of the Avenger cannon are obvious in this photograph.
The A-10 has many other unique features that are not as readily apparent. One is a high degree of component and subassembly interchangeability. To the maximum extent possible, left and right components of the aircraft are identical, which considerably reduces the number of spare parts needed to support it. The interchangeable components include the engines, landing gear, rudders, and many parts of the wings and tail. The landing gear design is also unique in that when it is retracted, the main and nose wheels protrude slightly beyond the outline of the fuselage. This permits the A-10 to make emergency gear-up landings without damage. The A-10 is designed to survive small-arms fire. Control cables and hydraulic lines are routed so that one projectile could not inflict enough damage to make the aircraft unflyable. Another survivability feature is the cockpit design. The lower portion is surrounded by lightweight titanium armor to protect the pilot. The A-10 payload is quite impressive. In addition to 30mm ammunition, the A-10 can carry missiles, bombs, cluster bombs, and other munitions, for a total of up to 18,500 pounds of ordnance. This is approximately equal to the weight of the aircraft and is about double the payload of other aircraft used in the close-air-support role. Yet the A-10’s most intriguing feature is undoubtedly its 30mm Avenger Gatling gun.
The World’s Most Powerful Gatling Gun
The heart of the A-10 is its 30mm gun. The military designation for this gun is the GAU-8/A (the GAU is pronounced “gow,” and is an acronym for Gun, Automatic, Utility), and the A-10 was literally designed around it.
The GAU-8/A is a seven-barreled 30mm Gatling gun that weighs approximately 3,900 pounds fully loaded (or about 20 percent of the total aircraft weight). The gun is hydraulically driven and is fed through a double helix drum and ammunition feed system similar to that of the 20mm Vulcan (more on the feed and storage system later).
One way to appreciate the power of this gun system is to consider it in relation to the A-10. The gun is mounted to place the firing barrel on the exact centerline of the aircraft, and for good reason. When firing at the maximum rate of 4,200 RPM (it can also fire at a reduced rate of 2,100 RPM), the GAU-8/A generates about 19,000 pounds of recoil. To put this in perspective, consider the power of the A-10’s two fan turbine engines. Each of these generates about 9,000 pounds of thrust. When both engines are at full throttle, they generate a combined thrust of 18,000 pounds, which is less than the recoil of the GAU-8/A. In other words, when firing at maximum rate, more recoil force is generated by the GAU-8/A than by both of the engines operating at full throttle! The effect is quite noticeable, as the gun actually slows the A-10 when it is firing.
The A-10’s Avenger Gatling fires when each barrel when it is aligned with the centerline of the aircraft, which is why the cannon is offset to the aircraft’s left side.
The high recoil of the GAU-8/A gun is also the reason the firing barrel is along the aircraft centerline. If it were not, the A-10 would turn away from the target each time the gun fired. Aircraft carrying the 20mm Vulcan in an off-centerline position are also susceptible to this phenomenon, but the recoil of the 20mm gun is small enough to allow for compensation by offsetting the rudder a few degrees. This is normally programed into the flight-control computer and requires no action by the pilot. That approach would not work on the A-10, though. The GAU-8/A gun simply generates too much recoil.
The GAU-8/A Gun System
The GAU-8/A Gun System is made up of four subsystems: the gun, the ammunition feed and storage subsystem, the drive subsystem, and the electrical control subsystem. Specifications for the GAU-8/A gun system are presented in Table 11-1 and explained below.
The GAU-8/A gun is a seven-barrel Gatling-based automatic cannon (see the illustrations above). The gun subsystem consists of the following nine major components:
Rotor assembly. The rotor assembly is made up of the forward rotor (which accepts the barrels and is geared to the gun drive shaft) and the mid-rotor (to which the bolt guide tracks are mounted). The rotor assembly operates in the same manner and provides the same functions as that of other Gatling guns.
Housing. The housing serves as the basic frame of the GAU-8/A and provides a mount for many of the gun components (including the lubricator, ammunition transfer unit, solenoid assembly, firing cam,
rotor, and other components). It also contains the elliptical cam path that drives the bolts back and forth.
Barrels. The GAU-8/A has seven barrels. Each is 93.1 inches long and has 20-groove right-hand constant twist rifling (unlike the 20mm Vulcan, which uses a gain twist rifling pattern).
Bolts. Seven bolts are used on the GAU-8/A. They are similar to those used on the 20mm Vulcan, except they are much larger and use a percussion (instead of an electrical) firing system.
Transfer unit. The transfer unit is mounted to the right side of the housing. It feeds ammunition into the gun and accepts fired and unfired cases from it.
The GAU-8/A cannon and ammunition. This seven-barreled Gatling gun fires several types of 30mm ammunition. The ammunition has an aluminum cartridge case, nylon rotating bands (to increase projectile velocity and decrease barrel wear), and (in the tank-busting role) a depleted uranium penetrator warhead.
Lubricator. The lubricator is mounted on the upper rear portion of the housing. It contains a reservoir of lubricant, and each time the gun fires a small quantity is injected onto the bolt tracks.
Solenoid assembly. The solenoid assembly is also mounted on the housing and is used to withdraw the firing pin safety when the firing signal is sent to the gun.
Mid-barrel support and clamp. The mid-barrel support and clamp provides the forward mounting point for the GAU-8/A. It also locks the barrels in position within the rotor.
Muzzle clamp. The muzzle clamp provides structural support for the cannon and maintains concentricity of the barrel cluster.
Ammunition Feed and Storage Subsystem
The ammunition feed and storage subsystem is used to store and convey live and spent rounds (empty cartridges are not ejected out of the A-10). The nine major components of the subsystem are as follows:
Ammunition storage drum. The ammunition storage drum is similar in concept to the drum used for the 20mm Vulcan. It consists of an inner and outer drum, two scoop-disk assemblies, two drum-cover assemblies, and two spacer rings. The inner drum has a double-helix that forces the rounds forward or backward when the inner drum is rotated. Ammunition passes through the drum-cover assemblies for loading, unloading, firing, and returning fired cartridge cases to the drum.
Entrance unit. The entrance unit is mounted on the rear drum-cover assembly. It receives fired cases from the conveyor elements (explained below) and passes them into the ammunition storage drum.
Exit unit. The exit unit is similar in concept to the entrance unit. It mounts on the front of the ammunition storage drum and is used to feed live rounds into the conveyor elements.
Ammunition chuting. The ammunition chuting provides a path for the conveyor elements that carry ammunition to and from the GAU-8/A gun.
Conveyor turnaround unit. The conveyor turnaround unit feeds live rounds into the gun transfer unit (explained in the description of the gun subsystem). The conveyor turnaround unit also accepts spent rounds from the gun transfer unit and places them in conveyor elements for return to the ammunition storage drum.
Ammunition conveyor elements. The ammunition conveyor elements are linked together to form an endless belt that travels to and from the gun through the ammunition chuting. Each element carries one round of ammunition going to the gun and one spent case or unfired round when returning to the ammunition storage drum.
Drum drive unit. Mounted on the drum exit cover, the drum drive unit drives the ammunition storage drum.
Equalizer. The equalizer is mounted on the ammunition chuting approximately midway between the ammunition storage drum and the GAU-8/A gun subsystem. It equalizes the tension between the feed and return ammunition conveyor elements.
Loading access unit. The loading access unit is used to load ammunition into the storage drum. It is accessible through a panel on the left side of the A-10 (just forward of the wing).
Drive Subsystem
The drive subsystem is a hydraulic drive assembly consisting of the following major components.
Hydraulic drive motors. Two identical hydraulic drive motors provide power for the GAU-8/A gun and the ammunition feed and storage system.
Accessory drive gearbox. The accessory drive gearbox is driven by the hydraulic drive motors. It provides output torque for the gun and drum drive shafts.
Gun drive shaft. The gun drive shaft provides power to the GAU-8/A gun subsystem.
Drum drive shaft. The drum drive shaft provides power to the ammunition feed and storage subsystem.
Electronic Control Subsystem
The electronic control subsystem consists of the electronic control unit. This “black box” contains the circuitry that controls all GAU-8/A logic functions.
System Operation
When the A-10 pilot engages a target, the first step is to bring the armament control system to a state of operational readiness. Once this is done, the pilot must get the target in the Heads Up Display screen,
commonly referred to as the HUD. The HUD is a transparent screen mounted directly in the pilot’s line of sight. A small pipper (or bright spot) is projected onto the screen, and the pilot maneuvers the airplane (and consequently, the GAU-8/A gun) until the pipper is directly on the target. This allows the pilot to engage the target without having to divert his vision. This capability is critically important in a close-air-support aircraft, which must fly at low altitudes.
When the pilot wants to fire the GAU-8/A gun, he presses the control-column-mounted trigger. The trigger sends a signal to the electronic control assembly, which subsequently sends a signal to two solenoids mounted on the hydraulic drive assembly. When these solenoids open, aircraft hydraulic pressure is applied to the two hydraulic drive motors, and the gun, ammunition storage drum, and chuting begin to move. One-tenth of a second later, the electronic control assembly sends another signal to the firing solenoid assembly, which is mounted on the gun housing. This solenoid withdraws the safing sector from the firing cam path in the gun housing, which allows ammunition to begin the classic seven-step Gatling firing sequence. Each round fires as it reaches the firing point.
When the trigger is released, the electronic control assembly sends a reverse signal to the hydraulic drive assembly. The hydraulic drive motors reverse and rapidly decelerate the gun system. The gun system cycles in a reverse direction until all rounds are cleared from the cannon. This is done to prevent a cook-off (the inadvertent firing of a round due to absorption of residual gun heat), which could occur if a live round remained in one of the GAU-8/A’s chambers.
The 30mm Family of Ammunition
The success story behind the 30mm family of ammunition used in the A-10 is as intriguing as the story behind the A-10 and the GAU-8/A. When the air force began the A-X program, the intent was to manufacture the 30mm ammunition in government arsenals. In the past, the government usually bought ammunition components from several suppliers and then did the loading, assembly, and packing operations in a government load plant. In the early 1970s, the government estimated that the cost of each 30mm round would be about $75.
Aerojet Ordnance Company and Honeywell, Inc. (two munitions manufacturers) convinced the government that it would be best to allow private industry to manufacture the complete round. Under this procurement concept, GAU-8/A ammunition production has been enormously successful. Private industry was able to deliver high-quality ammunition at about $6 per round instead of the $75 the government originally planned to spend. To date, more than 80 million rounds have been procured. The 30mm family of ammunition consists of three different rounds, as explained below:
Target practice. The target practice (TP) cartridge is used for training.
Essentially a slug, the projectile has an aluminum nose and steel body.
High-explosive incendiary. The high-explosive incendiary (HEI) cartridge fires an explosive warhead with a point-detonating fuze. The projectile body is made of steel and contains .124 pounds of a high
explosive and incendiary mix.
Armor-piercing incendiary tracer. The armor-piercing incendiary tracer (APIT) cartridge fires what is probably the most intriguing of the 30mm projectiles. The APIT projectile has a depleted uranium
penetrator sheathed in an aluminum sabot. The depleted uranium penetrator has two functions. Because depleted uranium is a very dense metal, it defeats enemy armor through kinetic energy alone (the combination of high velocity and mass allow it to break through armor). Depleted uranium is also pyrophoric, meaning it burns with intense heat after it breaks up. These two characteristics make it extremely effective against enemy tanks. The rear of the projectile contains a pyrotechnic fumer, which reduces aerodynamic drag and allows it to maintain high velocities.
The normal GAU-8/A combat mix of ammunition consists of one HEI round for every five APIT rounds (TP ammunition is used solely for target practice and is not usually mixed with HEI or APIT ammunition). All types of 30mm GAU-8/A ammunition use aluminum cartridge cases (to conserve weight) and either plastic or copper projectile bands (to engage the rifling in the GAU-8/A gun barrels). The projectile bands permit higher muzzle velocity and reduced barrel wear.
The A-10 Bottom Line
All things considered, the GAU-8/A 30mm Gatling gun is one of the most interesting and successful applications of ground-attack aircraft ever developed. The GAU-8/A gun system is the most powerful Gatling gun ever built. The extremely lethal 30mm family of ammunition is an amazing procurement success story. The A-10, the GAU-8/A, and the 30mm family of ammunition still make up an important part of the U.S. national defense and will continue to for quite some time.
So there you have it: Chapter 11 of The Gatling Gun. There are 15 chapters in The Gatling Gun touching on all of the early Gatlings, their Civil War and Indian war deployments, the transition to modern high-rate-of-fire gun systems after World War II, and contemporary Gatling systems like the A-10 Warthog. If you liked our chapter about the A-10, you might enjoy the rest of The Gatling Gun.
This has been a fun year, and a fun year to be a blogger. When we started ExhaustNotes 18 months ago, we had no idea we’d get the loyal following we have, the number of hits we’re getting, and the number of comments we would receive from you, our amazing readers. In the past 18 months, we’ve published 572 blog posts (this is Blog No. 572), we’ve had something north of 200,000 page visits, and we’ve received 2,481 approved blog comments. We actually had quite a few more comments, but the spam comments are filtered out and we’re not counting those. And you spammers out there, thanks for all the biblical excerpts, the website optimization offers, the hairstyle stuff (seriously, you think Gresh or I need hairstyle products?), and the offers to manufacture stuff in and buy chotchkas from China. You guys keep it coming, and our filters will keep bouncing it. Hope springs eternal, I guess.
Our most commented upon post last year? It was Joe Gresh’s blog on Bonnier and the demise of Motorcyclist magazine, which really raked in some zingers. Nobody makes the written word come alive like Joe does, and that includes his opening line in that blog: The distance from being read in the crapper and actually being in the crapper is a short one. According to Dealer News, Motorcyclist magazine crossed that span this week.
Other ExNotes blogs that drew comments big time are our blogs on what constitutes the perfect bike, what the motorcycle industry needs to do to grow the market, dream bikes, and of course, the gun stuff. Keep your thoughts coming, folks. It’s what we enjoy the most.
Our most frequently visited blog post last year? Far and away, it was our piece on Mini 14 Marksmanship. Somehow that post got picked up by a service that suggests sites to people when they open their cell phones, and we were getting in excess of 10,000 hits a day for a few days on that one. Go figure. There must be a lot of people out there who want to shoot their Mini 14 rifles better. Glad to be of help, folks.
We’ve stepped on a few toes along the way. Some folks got their noses bent out of shape because we do gun stuff. Hey, let us know if you want your money back. One guy went away all butthurt because Google ads popped up mentioning President Trump and mortgage deals that I guess our President helped along. Hey, whatever. We don’t control the popups, and the Internet’s artificial intelligence does funny things with what it reads on the blog…I mentioned using my Casio’s backlight to help find my way to the latrine at night, and since that blog I’ve been getting an unending stream (no pun intended) of prostate treatment popups. I may click on a few of them. When you get your artificially-inseminated Google-driven popups, we’d like you to click on them, too. It makes money flow. To us. It’s what keeps us on the air, you know.
We did a lot of travel this year, but not as many motorcycle trips as we wanted. The Royal Enfields we took through Baja were fun, and we had a great story on that ride published in Motorcycle Classics. I really enjoyed riding and writing about the Genuine G400c. Joe did a great series on his Yamaha EnduroFest adventure, and he’s had articles published in Motorcycle.com. Joe did another series on motorized bicycles and it was a hoot.
Joe and I both did shorter moto trips this past year, and we both want to get more riding in next year. Gresh and I are going to do a moto trip to Baja in 2020, and we may get to visit with Baja John in Bahia de Los Angeles (that dude likes Baja so much he moved there). On any of the Mexico trips, we for sure will be insured with BajaBound Insurance, the best insurance there is for travel in Mexico. More good travel stuff? We published Destinations, a compendium of the travel stories appearing in Motorcycle Classics magazine, and it’s doing very well (thank you).
More plans? Gresh will be pouring more concrete, and I’ll be spending more time at the West End Gun Club. Joe is planning to maybe pick up the Zed resurrection again, and I’m pretty sure he’ll get that bike on the road within the next 12 months. We’ve got the upcoming 9mm comparo I mentioned yesterday, and for sure more gun articles. Good buddy Gonzo asked us to ride in the 2020 Three Flags Classic, and I’d like to make a go of that one this coming year (I was disappointed in myself for not riding that great event in 2019, but the circumstances just weren’t right). I think I’m going to write Tales of the Gun as a book and offer it for sale here on ExNotes, and maybe Joe Gresh will do the same with his collection of moto articles (and when he does, you can bet I’ll buy the first copy). We’ll be doing more product reviews, including movie and book reviews. I’m going to get on my bicycle more, and we may have some info on electric bicycles, too. You’ll read all about it right here.
So it’s a wrap for 2019. Susie bought a bottle of Gentleman Jack for me, and I’m going to pour a shot and watch 2020 roll in later tonight. To all of you, our best wishes for a happy and healthy 2020. Ride safe, ride often, and keep your powder dry.
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I’ve been lusting over the SIG P226 Scorpion for some time now, and after a little bit of brushing up on my negotiation tactics, I pulled the trigger (figuratively speaking) on one this morning.
I like the looks of the SIG, I like that it is an alloy-framed handgun (I’m not a big fan of the plastic guns), and I like that it is a SIG. Good buddy TJ told me he believes these are the finest handguns available today, and he’s a guy who knows handguns. The US Army recently made their sidearm decision and it’s SIG. That’s a strong endorsement, I think.
I bought my SIG Scorpion at Turner’s, the gun will be in the store this Thursday, and that’s when I get to start the PRK (Peoples Republik of Kalifornia) 10-day waiting period.
My tried and trusty Model 59, the gun that got me hooked on 5.0 grains of Unique and a 125-grain cast roundnose bullet.
I’ve got a boatload of 9mm ammunition reloaded and ready to go, but that got me to thinking: What load might work best in the new SIG? I’d found in the past that 5.0 grains of Unique and a 125-grain cast roundnose bullet provided great accuracy in my Model 59, but then I got lazy and I stuck with that as my standard 9mm load in everything. I’ll be the first guy to tell you that to find the best load in any gun, you need to experiment and develop a load specifically for that gun. I have a couple of other 9mm pistols (a Springfield Armory 1911 and the Model 659 Smith and Wesson that I’ve blogged about before), and I’ve simply used my 5.0-grain Unique/125-grain cast roundnose in all of them. Is there a better load for each of these handguns?
The 659 with my 125 grain cast roundnose reloads.The Springfield 9mm 1911. It seems to like the 5.0 grain Unique/125-grain roundnose load, too.
So here’s what’s coming up: I’m going to do a load development comparo for the 659, the 1911, and the P226 to see where the accuracy lives for each gun. I’m thinking Unique, Bullseye, Power Pistol, the 147 grain Speer, the 125 gr cast RN Missouri, and maybe a 115 full metal jacket or hollowpoint bullet. I’m looking for inputs, so if you have a favored load for your 9mm handgun, let me know and I may throw it into the mix, too. Please add your suggestions to the Comments section here. I’ll keep you posted.
We’re thinking about another book, one that would include all of our Tales of the Gun stories and much more. What do you think? Let us know if you think you might have an interest in this new book to help us assess the market. In the meantime, you can see our other titles here.
It’s not every day you get to see a new 2020 Suzuki Katana for the first time, and it’s certainly not every day you get living legend and motojournalist extraordinaire Kevin Duke to take a photo of you standing next to it. Yesterday was that day for me, and the photo you see above was a shot Kevin grabbed of yours truly with the new Katana. I was visiting with the boys at 
grips. These little snubbie 1911s are surprisingly accurate.
Our most commented upon post last year? It was Joe Gresh’s 
We’ve stepped on a few toes along the way. Some folks got their noses bent out of shape because 
We did a lot of travel this year, but not as many motorcycle trips as we wanted. The Royal Enfields we took through Baja were fun, and we had a 
