Last A-10 built

Below is a news article and photos of the last A-10 built (82-0665) leaving the Hagerstown plant on it way to it's new home with the 74th TAC Fighter Squadron, England AFB LA.

Associated press
By: Linda Duffield

With the whine of its engines and a dip of its wings, the last A-10 Thunderbolt II warplane that Fairchild Industries will build at its Hagerstown plant joined the Air Force yesterday.

The departure of the A-10 marked the end of an era for the plant which has been making airplanes for the past 50 years and has been assembling and flight testing the A-10 for the Air Force since 1973.

Following a brief ceremony at the local plant, Lt. Col. Richard C. Lemon, squadron commander of the 74th Tactical Fighter Squadron of the Tactical Air Command, boarded the anti-tank jet and took off for a 31/2 hour flight to England Air Force Base near Alexandria La., where the plane will be based.

The final A-10 was the 713th of the ground attack aircraft to be assembled here for the Air Force. At peak production, a dozen of the aircraft rolled out of Hagerstown each month. Lemon who described the A-10 as the "best airplane in the world " said the nose of the camouflage green plane would be decorated with tiger teeth after it's first arrival in Louisiana. "Ten years ago hen I first got into working with the A-10, there were a lot of jokes about it being ugly and slow." Lemon said. "But when we get it down to England Air Force Base and get some tiger teeth on it , it will be a thing of beauty." Powered by two engines, the A-10 was developed to destroy tanks and other infantry support vehicles and equipment. Lemon said the plane, while on tactical maneuvers flies at altitudes below 500 feet at speeds of 350 to 400 miles per hour.

The A-10 that left here yesterday was the last plane of any type to be produced at Fairchild's Hagerstown plant. Fairchild announced that last August that it would close it's main Hagerstown plant because the loss of a Boeing Co. contract and the phase out of the A-10 project. Since then, the airplane manufacturer has laid off about 900 of its 1,600 workers and has deeded over its assembly back from the state to make spare parts for the A-10.

Plant manager Robert Crawford a "little over 700" employees remain at the plant. he said 60 of them are working on spare parts for the A-10, while the rest are employed and the firm's bonding plant.

82-0665 flew with the 23rd TFW, England AFB LA. until 1992 when it was transferred to Davis Monthan AFB AZ where it was used to train new A-10 pilots. In 1995 it move to a newly formed A-10 wing, the 347th located at Moody AFB Ga. It stayed there until the A-10 unit was deactivated in 2000, when it moved back to Davis Monthan this time being assigned to the combat squadron, where it still is today (2207).

During it's stay at England the ladder door was painted to commemorate it being the last A-10 build, and the fact it was assigned to the famous 23rd TFW Flying Tigers. The door depicted the cartoon character "Cool Cat" tying it to the the Flying Tigers. Cool Cat had a lightning bolt behind him like the one found on the 23rd wing patch, and below him was the phrase "The Last Tiger" alluding to the fact it was the last A-10 built and proud to be a Flying Tiger.