On Mon, 13 Jul 2020 06:25:05 -0400, Paul
wrote:

snip

"Although the A-10 can carry a considerable amount of munitions, its
primary built-in weapon is the 30×173 mm GAU-8/A Avenger autocannon.
One of the most powerful aircraft cannons ever flown, it fires large
depleted uranium armor-piercing shells. The GAU-8 is a hydraulically
driven seven-barrel rotary cannon designed specifically for the
anti-tank role with a high rate of fire. The cannon's original design
could be switched by the pilot to 2,100 or 4,200 rounds per minute;
this was later changed to a fixed rate of 3,900 rounds per minute. The
cannon takes about half a second to reach top speed, so 50 rounds are
fired during the first second, *65 or 70 rounds per second
thereafter*. "


At some point in its development, the "exhaust" from
the GAU was enough to cause an engine flameout in flight.

https://aviation.stackexchange.com/q...e-from-its-gun

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...ng-and-a-curse

It is a crazy bit of kit.

Was it also fact that the plane was actually slowed ('measurably', I
know 'Every action has an equal and opposite reaction' so even a
single bullet fired forward would have an effect to a tiny degree))
when the gun was fired?

Cheers, T i m

p.s. We used to watch the A10's and others doing touch-n-goes at RAF
Lakenheath. ;-)