As impressive as the Volkswagen sized gun is, it's the 1 liter bottle sized shell that I've found most impressive.
As a long time believer in "form follows function", I've never thought it was an ugly airplane, but I do admit it lacks the sleek style of the F15/F16/F18 fast jets (I don't think the A-10 looks any worse than the F-35).
Ogre, over the years I've heard various pronouncements about why we don't need a certain weapon anymore - for example why we didn't need to put guns/cannons on fighter jets - guided missiles have made them obsolete, or that tanks were obsolete and were just expensive targets, we didn't need them any more. Yet somehow when we send our people into harms way - those weapons turn out to still come in handy...
I continue to be amazed that smart people seem to think the F-35 - a uniquely vulnerable to ground fire aircraft (lightly armored, complex single engine) can replace the A-10 for close air support.