NOTE: This is a WIP and will be altered depending responses to earlier questions asked, and other possible changes.
PILOTName: Cameron 'Cam' Sinclair
Age: 30
Height: 5' 7"
Weight: 120kg
Pilot Class: Hunter
Nationality: USA
Appearance: (Full Picture)Bio: Born to a South Korean mother and an American father, Cam grew up between the two countries. Proud of his dual heritage, Cameron was always a curious, creative and ingenious boy, who grew up into a headstrong, yet intelligent and quick-witted man. Taking advantage of the ROTC program in his college years, he joined the USAF after graduating to repay his debts, and as a chance to gain useful skills and connections. He found himself a natural fit for military life, and his aptitude and quick-thinking gave him a direct route into training as a pilot.
It was down in the weeds at low-level he found his niche. Earning a reputation for being 'on-time, on-target', he became a deadly and skillful air-to-ground attacker, building a strong understanding of the needs of close-air-support for troops and forces on the ground, and a great understanding of both the dynamics and situations of low-level ground-attack, and the threats specific to operating a ground-attack jet in a low-altitude battlefield environment.
As the 'war to end all wars' kicked off, Cam had already established himself well as a pilot with a ground-attack unit, and was stationed in South Korea. As the South-East Asian region collapsed, his unit found themselves quickly isolated from home, help and allies as all of the nations locally where their forces were based were consumed in their own conflicts, and help from home was cut off. Despite attempts to hold out for as long as possible and help the locals, it wasn't long before the US and South Korean forces were quickly overrun. Making hard decisions, the unit of A-10's and their support crews, as well as dependents and a handful of hangers-on managed to barter, steal, and bully their way into commandeering aircraft from regional airports and support units. Hopping across South-East Asia, they found their way from Korean to Diego Garcia, then to Africa and up to Europe. In each region they lost people and equipment as they became embroiled in local conflicts and politics, their numbers being whittled down quickly as they went through supplies, ammunition and people, and were increasingly forced to cannibalize their aircraft for spares, or others were rendered unservicable through maintenance issues.
Finally, after years and months of being on the move and their numbers being achingly whittled down and down, the last few personnel arrived in France. Exhausted and with only one A-10 remaining, they received word that there was a unit in Scotland looking for people in a new venture. Hopeful and with nowhere else to go, Cameron and the last surviving members of his unit and their dependents undertook one - hopefully - last journey to the shores of the former United Kingdom in search of something better than merely staying alive.
For Cameron in particular, the hope is to return home and find some, any, trace of his family, and to make some sense of where and how everything fell apart, and begin to find a new niche for himself. After watching his group of comrades and friends slowly picked apart, he feels an empty hole in his life, that he hopes to fill with new friends, and to utilize his skills and aptitude for some greater role than the menial existence of survival. With his nation - to his knowledge - nothing more than a vat of chaos and burned out wastes, the oaths he swore have come to mean little-to-nothing, and his service and dedication a hollow effort. He needs to find a place to belong to feel that his life has purpose and meaning again, and hopes that by joining the motley, rag-tag group of pilots making up the Albion Avengers he'll find something worth living and flying for again.
Theme Song: Jesus Built My HotrodPLANE:Name: Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II (unofficially nicknamed 'Warthog', due to its' supposedly ugly appearance)
Description: The A-10 Thunderbolt II is a straight-winged subsonic jet aircraft, designed purely for ground attack. Intended for low-altitude roles, it's primary strengths are in the destruction of armoured and unarmoured vehicles and structures, and the close-support of friendly ground forces. It accomplishes this by being heavily armoured, and designed with redundancy and survivability in mind. The aircraft is capable of remaining airborne with the majority of either tail, wing or engine shot away, and the pilot is protected by titanium alloy armour around the cockpit area. Other systems add to its' survivability, and the aircraft is so rugged and hardy, as well as simple to maintain, that it can be operated from 'forward' rough-prepared airstrips and facilities, rather than full airbases, with minimal support crew and specialized tools.
The A-10 also carries a widely varied and fearsome arsenal of weapons, not least the massive 30mm, 7-barrelled GAU-8A Avenger cannon, which is capable of turning even the most heavily armoured of vehicles into scrap on a single pass.
Plane Type: Ground-attack jet
Extra Aircraft Notes: A subsonic ground-attack jet, the A-10 lacks the full capability of an air-to-air fighter. It has no air-to-air radar, and is slower than most of its' contemporary aircraft.
It's straight, wide wings and high tail, combined with its' sturdy construction and landing gear give it an excellent short-take-off and landing capability, as well as the ability to use rough airstrips (such as roads, or even pounded dirt or gravel) as well as full airbase facilities for operations.
Max Speed: 600mph
Max Altitude: 50,000ft
Combat Radius: 300 nautical miles (fully loaded)
Loaded Weight: 14,500kg
Weapons Descriptions: 1 x internally-mounted GAU-8A Avenger 7-barrelled rotary cannon
11 x wing and underbody hardpoints for a variety of weapon and auxiliary systems. 2 x hardpoints plumbed for droptanks.
(**if the centreline hardpoint under the body is used, it can restrict the use of adjacent hardpoints)
(*multiple ejector racks can be fitted for up to some types of weapon, such as unguided bombs, rocket pods, or light gunpods)
Despite the fact it HAS 11 hardpoints, they aren't always all loaded, due to weight and flight restrictions.
Also, while it has a number of options below, it's not going to be carrying one of everyone on a mission... that would be ridiculous.
Loadouts can consist of a combination of the following weapons and systems across the aircrafts' hardpoints:
- Mark 80 series of unguided bombs
- Cluster bombs
- Incendiary bombs
- Laser-guided bombs
- GPS-Guided bombs
- Unguided rocket pods
- IR, TV or laser-guided air-to-ground/surface missiles
- Gunpods
- Maximum of 2 short-range IR-Guided air-to-air missiles (primarily for self-defence, or against slow-moving targets)
- Targeting pods (Laser targeting, 1 only. Though why would you need more?)
- ECM Pods (maximum of 1 only. Again, why would you need more?)
- Maximum of 2 droptanks (usually only used for long-range flight from one airbase to another, and not in combat)
Weaknesses: As discussed above, the A-10 is designed for air-to-ground combat. It lacks a long-range air-to-air radar, and cannot carry any kind of radar-guided weapon systems. It is also significantly slower than many other other aircraft, as it is incapable of supersonic flight. The majority of its' weapons are also (comparatively) short ranged, as it does not carry any true 'stand off' weapons of any kind, such as cruise missiles, meaning it is often exposed direction to enemy firepower, such as SAMs and hostile aircraft in the area.
Past Encounter: Cameron's most notable feat, and one that would be likely to circulate in bars and other hives of gossip and passed word and deed, is an operation over Malta around two years ago. While his unit were travelling through the region, they were at the local airbase, which had become a hub for refugees and military personnel both shuttling to and from Africa, the Middle East and Europe. The island was threatened by a mass attack from renegade forces in the area. No other combat aircraft were available beyond a trio of worn-down F-16's, primarily configured for air-to-air combat, and with inexperienced pilots.
Cameron and his wingmen sortied repeatedly, often taking off under fire from ships off-shore, and repeatedly hammered the landing forces with bombs, rockets and cannon-fire, turning them away from the coast, and buying time for defence forces to organize and repel each wave of invaders. They often attacked at 'danger close' distances, within feet of friendly forces with pin-point precision in even low-light and night-time conditions, suffering only minimal casualties. On multiple occasions they even took down attacked helicopters, Cameron notably blasting one out of the sky with a volley of unguided rockets at point-blank range, akin to using a shotgun in bird-hunting.
Their planes came back with considerable heavy damage on multiple occasions, yet their mainteinance crews managed to get them in the air again, and the pilots soldiered on despite crippling fatigue, eventually sinking the landing base ships and frigates themselves through some expert evasive flying to launch anti-ship Maverick missiles and 2,000lb Paveway laser-guided bombs into the sides of the ships and send them under. Eventually, they were relieved when reinforcements finally arrived from Spain, but the courage and tenacity of the A-10 pilots has been passed in through word of mouth.
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@Crazy Doctor - have to just say that I love your choice of plane. The Harrier is, in my opinion, one of the classic aircraft of all time. I've had the joy of seeing them at airshows in the past, and it's a great sadness to me that the Royal Navy and RAF retired them from service.