Martin “Mighty Midget”
In 1952, the Martin Company produced a design for a single-seat ground attack plane. Check that… a single *couch* ground attack plane. It didn;t have a seat, as the pilot lay prone. The result was a plane of remarkably small frontal section… and remarkably small overall dimensions. The Mighty Midget was designed to be a small, tough, cheap proto-A-10, able to dish out a truckload of industrial strength whoopass; small, fast and nimble enough to evade enemy fire; and tough enough to take whatever did hit it.
A modernized version could very well do great service in today’s wars. The Marines and the Army would almost certainly love to have such a plane (although the Army would tick off the Air Force if they actually went ahead and bought something like this).
To get more info on the Mighty Midget, check this out.
November 10th, 2009 at 11:03 am
What’s the payload and is there any armor on that thing ?
November 10th, 2009 at 3:30 pm
It seems to have some German ancestor.
November 10th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
Archipeppe beat me to it.
There where some late ’30’s and WW2 studies and experiments by the Germans/Luftwaffa showing that the pilot could take a high G load on a couch. So the aircraft of the day would be limited by the airframe structure instead of the pilot. I don’t thing anything in the West came close till the F-16’s.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:16 pm
> What’s the payload…
Rockets, guns, bombs, all strung along numerous underwing pylons. Additionally guns in the wings firing forward. Alternatively wings in one of the wings firing sideways, as with the AC-130/
> and is there any armor on that thing ?
Yup.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
> some German ancestor.
Hans Multhopp may have been involved in the design.
November 11th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
The German ancestor: http://www.aviastar.org/air/germany/blohm_bv-40.php
I note the thing even has upward firing “Schräge Musik” guns like a WW II German night fighter.
November 13th, 2009 at 3:20 am
Perhaps a useful idea for the time, but rather obsolete now in the face of UAV-scale vehicles armed with lightweight precision guided munitions. (Viper Strike, SDB, APKWS, etc)
Jim
I like the idea of the pilot being obliged to assist with the maintenance. Snerk.
December 8th, 2009 at 11:52 am
[…] Note that much more on the Midget can be seen here. […]
December 8th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Look at the BV-40.