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
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.
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