The WWII-Era Inspired Plane Giving the F-35 a Run For Its Money

schwit1 writes: The US military almost adopted the A-29 Super Tucano, a $4 million turboprop airplane reminiscent of WWII-era designs that troops wanted, commanders said was "urgently needed," but Congress refused to buy. "It's a great plane," says recently retired Air Force Lt. Col. Shamsher Mann, an F-16 pilot who has flown A-29s. "Pilots love it. It handles beautifully, sips gas, and can go anywhere. If you want to get into the fight and mix it up with the guys on the ground, the Super T is a great platform." The Super Tucano provided the "low-end" air-to-ground attack capability the United States simply never had in Afghanistan-a capability the Pentagon's F-35 could never hope to replicate.

Comments

Re:A Jeep will beat a Corvette sometimes, too.

[mrchaotica]

Literally, the only thing that car has in common with an actual Jeep is the 80" wheelbase. From elsewhere on the site you linked:

People ask why a Jeep and the answer is simple. The class rule is that the wheelbase of the vehicle can't be shorter than 80", and that the car you build, must resemble the car it's based off of. The builder, Del Long, started searching for cars that had an 80 wheelbase, and discovered that a 1946 Jeep had one. So at that point, Del started building the only autocross Jeep in the country. Oh... there are no real Jeep parts used on the car at all. Even the grill is a replica.