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A-10 Warthog: 50 Facts About This Legendary Aircraft

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The First Flight Ran Into a Few Glitches

A-10 Warthog Night Checks
A crew chief from the 51st Maintenance Group marshals an A-10 Thunderbolt II prior to takeoff for a training mission during exercise Beverly Herd 16-01 at Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea, May 10, 2016. The 25th Fighter Squadron arrived with A-10s to Osan in October 1993. BH 16-01 is a week-long readiness exercise for the 51st Fighter Wing that includes a plethora of scenarios.
Tech. Sgt. Travis Edwards, U.S. Air Force: A-10 Warthog

While the A-10 is renown for durability, the first adoption of the aircraft did have a few problems. Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. received the first-ever production A-10 in October 1975. When production began in full in 1976, initial fatigue testing failed to meet the new 8,000 hour standard. However, further testing by the engineers at Fairchild Republic found that they needed to reinforce the airframe in order to fix the issue. This was relatively minor. After the correction, 715 airplanes were ordered at the rate of 15 aircraft per month.