Meet The X-Plane That Lost To The A-10 Warthog: The Northrop YA-9

The A-10 Thunderbolt II, whose design earned it the name “Warthog,” had a challenger – the Northrop YA-9. The Northrop YA-9 was Northrop’s answer to the need for a close air support aircraft required by the United States Air Force A-X program. The Northrop YA-9 competed with but lost to the Fairchild Republic YA-10, which was then developed into the A-10 Thunderbolt II. Whether Soviet engineers were influenced by the YA-9A’s design or not, the Soviet ground attack answer, the Su-25 Frogfoot, bears similarities to the YA-9.