GUTHRIE - The Guthrie-Edmond Regional Airport is playing host to a very special aircraft. Right now it's a fighter jet, but it's being modified to do something very different.

The A-10 Thunderbolt II is a fighter jet currently used in places like Afghanistan and Kuwait. However, the one sitting in Guthrie is training to be a storm chaser.

"It's not built for speed, said A-10 Aircraft Program Manager and Crew Chief Vince Schneider. "It was built to loiter and stay over top of the battle field to protect the army."

The A-10 Schneider is working on is retired from active duty, but is getting a new life as a storm penetrating aircraft. The jet will hunt down tornadoes and hurricanes, capturing crucial information.

"The mission of this aircraft is to get close to the storm," said Schneider.

It's a $13 million project funded by the National Science Foundation. Zivko Aeronautics in Guthrie was chosen to make the project a reality. Schneider is in charge of retrofitting the new technology into the aircraft's old body.

A computer server system will be installed where the weapons system used to be. The system will use sensors on the wings to detect things like wind speed, pressure and movement of a storm. The information is then sent to researchers working on the ground.

"So they'll get real time, first-hand knowledge of whatever it is they want to sample," Schneider said.

The A-10 will be equipped to release small sensors into the storm, similar to what was done in the movie "Twister". The only difference is the sensors will be released from above the storm instead of below it.

"We're actually going to drop ours out of the wing tips and the wheel pods," said Schneider.

It will take a lot of hard work to equip the Thunderbolt II for its new assignment, but if it helps keep the public safer in the process, Schneider says it's a mission worth accomplishing.

"The benefit is to the Air Force. The benefit is to the scientific community. The benefit is to the civilian community, a lot of benefits here," Schneider said.

Schneider says it's likely universities like OSU, OU and others will use the aircraft to gather research. The hope is that the information will give researchers a better idea of how storms move so we can alert the public quicker and more accurately. The project is expected to be finished by the end of the summer.

Already looks odd without the gun on the snout. Wonder how they will paint it up, NOAA P-3 like maybe?

They must have some mega ballast in the nose to keep it from falling on its tail without the gun in there.

Too bad, I thought they were going to try and shoot the storms...make for a good Syfy Sat nite flick.




The Jedi Master

Penetrating giant thunderstorms/weather systems ON PURPOSE in a single seat a/c.....

Scary stuff IMO. More power to them.

This. Hope it's getting some upgrades and a weather radar.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Interesting. Jedi brings up a good point. The husband of one of my Dad's friends was an A-10 pilot and they gave him a single barrel off a Warthog's cannon. I got to hold it and that sucker was heavy and it was only one barrel. Seems that they would have to compensate for its absence.

I was thinking the same thing Coot.
They built this plane around the cannon....so how does it function, without having the main cannon any longer???

Must have been a real engineering masterpiece!

I'd guess a lot more ballast. We can't even tow an A-10 if the gun and ammo drum are removed, and have to have a tripod jack under the tail if we have to get on top for anything.

I'd do it. Sounds like fun.

I'm betting they demilitarized the receiver and left it in. The barrel weight will probably be made up for with instruments and a big chunk of lead.

"The jet will hunt down tornadoes and hurricanes, capturing crucial information"

doesn't make much sense - we have all the storm chasers we need doing it from the ground and the WP-3 Orions packed full of the necessary meteorology gear with 15 + man crews that can stay up for over 10 hours taking care of the Hurricanes.

Leave the cannon. You never know what might be hiding in those clouds.

From a purely fiscal and safety outlook it's better to risk one small,relatively, plane and one person than a large plane and 13+ people. No to mention that the guy in the air has a lot more options than a group of folks on the ground.

Yup!

Also a helluva lot cheaper to fly the A-10 that has the lowest flight hour to maintenance cost of any other USAF aircraft in the inventory.

this is sweet, but I'm amazed how quickly they were able to sell a current military jet, even if it is demilitarized.

Bring back F-14s for this task...please?....that way they might show up in the wild and at airshows again.

how is an A-10 even capable of doing the job the Hurricane Hunters do ? How is one person going to accomplish that ? Those Orions are packed with lots of needed equipment that will not even fit inside an A-10 and one person cannot take all the needed measurements.

Hurricane Hunter aircraft

WC-130J

to think an A-10 and 1 man could do the same job is laughable - tornadoes, ok .......Hurricanes - no way

I'm fairly certain the observation on hurricanes will be when they are on land or very close.

I think you have your wires crossed Hags, the A10 is going to be shooting storms downs before they wreak havoc. Soon there won't be any need for the old Hercs or Orions.