Photo: USAF/Senior Master Sgt. Hyung Kwon
Here at autoevolution we get to talk a lot about military hardware, but at times our coverage may seem to be a bit one-sided. With the U.S. Air Force (USAF) so keen in advertising the exploits of its airmen and hardware, we rarely get to talk about aircraft that were not made or are not used by America’s military.
It does happen, though, from time to time, and this is one of those occasions, a rare encounter between a South Korean-made flying machine, and two of America’s most potent (and ugly) flying beasts, the A-10 Thunderbolt.
The Korean flying machine (closest to the viewer in the main pic of this piece) would be something called he KA-1 Woongbi, a light attack/trainer aircraft local Korea Aerospace Industries has been putting together since the early 1990s.
Crewed by two pilots, it is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney engine that spins a Hartzell four-bladed aluminium propeller, giving the plane a top speed of close to 650 kph (404 mph), and the capability to fly at an altitude of 11,580 meters (38,000 feet).
Currently deployed in the service (mostly for pilot training duties) of only a handful of nations, including South Korea, Peru, and Turkey, the Woongbi doesn’t get out in the open that much, so when the USAF posted a pic of it not long ago, we had to bring it under the spotlight for a bit.
The Korean plane is seen in the main photo conducting a flight during exercise Buddy Squadron 22-5, held at the Wonju Air Base at the beginning of July. It was, as per the Air Force, “the first of its kind since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,” and that only gets our hopes up we’ll get to see more of the Woongbi and its friends in action in the near future.
The Korean flying machine (closest to the viewer in the main pic of this piece) would be something called he KA-1 Woongbi, a light attack/trainer aircraft local Korea Aerospace Industries has been putting together since the early 1990s.
Crewed by two pilots, it is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney engine that spins a Hartzell four-bladed aluminium propeller, giving the plane a top speed of close to 650 kph (404 mph), and the capability to fly at an altitude of 11,580 meters (38,000 feet).
Currently deployed in the service (mostly for pilot training duties) of only a handful of nations, including South Korea, Peru, and Turkey, the Woongbi doesn’t get out in the open that much, so when the USAF posted a pic of it not long ago, we had to bring it under the spotlight for a bit.
The Korean plane is seen in the main photo conducting a flight during exercise Buddy Squadron 22-5, held at the Wonju Air Base at the beginning of July. It was, as per the Air Force, “the first of its kind since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic,” and that only gets our hopes up we’ll get to see more of the Woongbi and its friends in action in the near future.
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