“Night Hog” A-10C Thunderbolt II HD Acrylic Print 48 x 14 in

“Night Hog” , 2017 – Photographer: Jessica Voruda

Archival Pigment Print on Metallic Photo Paper
Face-Mounted to Optically Clear Acrylic
48in x 14in

A Fairchild Republic A-10C Thunderbolt II rests on the military ramp at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, its intake covers installed, its landing gear chocked, and the field lights of the world’s largest fly-in glowing softly in the distance. The aircraft belongs to the United States Air Force A-10C Thunderbolt II Demonstration Team, based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, captured here during its 2019 airshow tour.

Affectionately known as the Warthog, the A-10 was designed around its weapon: the 30mm GAU-8/A Avenger, a seven-barrel rotary cannon nearly the length of a small car, firing depleted-uranium rounds at up to 3,900 rounds per minute. The aircraft entered service in 1977 as a dedicated close air support platform, built to loiter low and slow over the battlefield protecting troops on the ground, and its pilots and the infantry they supported came to love it with an intensity rarely matched by any other combat aircraft. The distinctive sound of the gun, a low mechanical growl that arrives after the rounds themselves, became one of the most recognizable signatures in modern military aviation. The Demonstration Team flew its final season in 2024, closing out more than forty years of single-ship and dual-team performances as the United States Air Force begins retiring the A-10 fleet entirely by the end of the decade. This photograph captures the aircraft mid-career, on a quiet Oshkosh night, during the last era of an airplane that pilots, soldiers, and airshow crowds will miss for a very long time.