From the book “What if?” by Randall Munroe:
> The GAU-8 Avenger fires up to 60 1-pound bullets a *second*. It produces almost 5 tons of recoil force, which is crazy considering that it’s mounted in a type of plane (the A-10 “Warthog”) whose two engines produce only 4 tons of thrust each. If you put two of them in one aircraft, and fired both guns forward while opening up the throttle, the guns would win and you’d accelerate backward.
I guess I never really thought about it until just now, but… do pilots have to compensate for the recoil when they fire their weaponry?
How *does* – or doesn’t – the recoil of their ordnance affect the planes mid-flight?
In: 4
There is a tradeoff in armed aircraft. The larger the bullets and the faster they fire, the less ammunition they can store. The A-10’s GAU-8 cannon can only fire for about 18 seconds, total. During this time, while the pilot will definitely notice the force, it will not have a huge impact on the airplane simply because it is so brief.
Of course, no pilot should be holding down the trigger for that long.
When the gun is on, the plane is slowing down. That’s it. The pilots train a LOT to control the pattern of the bullets and ensure they hit their target.
Yes, the pilot is compensating for the recoil while flying.
The a10 warthog was specifically designed from the ground up with this in mind. There are aero adjustments made automatically when firing to prevent the nose rising/falling. Another big issue is the gas from the cannon firing is enough to choke out the engines and cause them to stall. This is primary reason engines are so high on the a10.
Russia, on the other hand, has attempted to put big ass guns on planes repeatedly. They all had disastrous results.
There are currently just wrong answers here.
I can’t do the math, but it’s been done plenty of times and the equation is always the same; the bullets energy VS the aircraft is not enough to visibly effect it.
And there was an A10 pilot who commented on this, he said that there is no change in airspeed when firing the gun.
More info: https://youtu.be/wk6Qr6OO5Xo
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