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Aerostyle Aviation AMA-1968

119k DestinyAviation  8.3 years ago

-VTOL down to retract gear
-Action group 1-3: Inferno missiles
-Action Group 4&5: Jettison rocket pods
-Action group 6: Bombs
-Action group 7: External fuel tank

History: The Aerostyle Aviation AMA-1968 (Aerostyle Military Aviation) was "loosely" based off of concept designs for the Northrop YA-9. The AMA-1968 was a single-seat ground-attack aircraft with a top speed over 500 miles per hour. It was meant to combat the North Vietnamese advances into South Vietnamese territory. Officials originally thought that it was "The ugliest aircraft to ever come off the drawing board". But, after seeing footage of a single aircraft taking out a large convoy and its three MiG-21 escorts, the USAF changed its mind and decided to fund the program. A squadron was formed to exclusively use the AMA-1968, which performed spectacularly and produced many ace pilots. The AMA-1968 was equipped (as a standard load out) with eight .50 caliber machine guns, but other variants included: Night reconnaissance, light bomber, trainer, mail plane, and (with a limited use and success) propaganda aircraft. But, eventually it was eclipsed by better attack aircraft, and at the end of 1974 it was retired from active duty (the squadron that flew them either transferred to the better aircraft or resigned). Around 7,100 were manufactured. About 1,200 were lost in combat, over 5,000 were lost (they either were lost in transit back to the US or were stolen form airfields), and the remainder are either owned by private investors or by museums.

General Characteristics

  • Created On iOS
  • Wingspan 54.0ft (16.5m)
  • Length 63.6ft (19.4m)
  • Height 18.6ft (5.7m)
  • Empty Weight 20,715lbs (9,396kg)
  • Loaded Weight 20,993lbs (9,522kg)

Performance

  • Power/Weight Ratio 3.211
  • Wing Loading 42.9lbs/ft2 (209.4kg/m2)
  • Wing Area 489.6ft2 (45.5m2)
  • Drag Points 10401

Parts

  • Number of Parts 263
  • Control Surfaces 5
  • Performance Cost 1,081