A vintage PR film about Scaled Composites Ares ground attack aircraft from the late 1980s. It was a neat plane, and the idea of a cheap, small, nimble ground support plane sure seemed like it made sense, but the DoD didn’t want it. Why? Well… among a number of reasons both good and bad, take a look at the video when the GAU-12/U 25mm Gatling gun goes off… and throws the bitty lightweight aircraft all over the sky (at 1:48) . Accuracy must’ve been atrocious… which can be seen in the shots showing the target (2:18) with rounds hitting all over the place.
Lightweight and nimble are often good features. However, accurate gunnery with powerful, high-recoil weapons requires heavy and stable… or really, really effective computer-controlled active stability, which adds cost in a hurry.
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