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.
9 Responses to “Martin “Mighty Midget””
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What’s the payload and is there any armor on that thing ?
It seems to have some German ancestor.
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.
> 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.
> some German ancestor.
Hans Multhopp may have been involved in the design.
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.
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.
[…] Note that much more on the Midget can be seen here. […]
Look at the BV-40.