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Archive for the ‘F/A-18 Hornet’ Category

The F/A-18 Hornet originally designed by McDonnell Douglas and Northrop. The F/A-18 Hornet came from the YF-17 back in the 70s used by the Marine Corps and the U.S. Navy. The F/A 18 Hornet has flown by the Blue Angles going back to 1986 when the United States Navy selected it for the Demonstration Squadron.

The first Hornet to blaze the sky rolled out from McDonnell Douglas in September of 1978. She had blue on white colors with Navy painted on the left side and Marines painted on the right side. Testing was done by Marine and Navy test pilots at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. The first test pilot to fly the F/A-18A was Navy pilot Lt. Cdr. John Padgett in March of 1979.

The F/A-18 provides a wide variety of rolls with its capability. With a top speed of Mach 1.8 the Hornet has proven to be a force to be reckoned with. The F/A-18A Hornets are powered by two GE F404 engines with 17,750 lbs of thrust with afterburner making it thrust-to-weight ratio excellent. The leading edge extensions are responsible for the superb aerodynamic characteristics. Capable of carrying all kinds of armaments beginning with its M61 Vulcan cannon, at 20 mm and a host of bombs and air to air and air to ground missiles.

F/A-18 Hornet’s Primary Mission

F/A-18 Hornet (Order Today!)

The Hornet was built to provide fighter escort, air interdiction, aerial reconnaissance, close air support and the suppression of enemy air defenses. Some have over the years have criticized the Hornet for its lack of payload and range comparing it to the Grumman F-14 Tomcat, A-6 Intruder and the LTV A-7 Corsair.

Boeing redesigned the F/A-18 Hornet into a Super Hornet the Boeing F/A-18E/F with improved range and payload. The new Super Hornet by Boeing has replaced the old expensive aging F-14 Tomcats. The Super Hornets are now filling many different rolls such as refueling tanker and electronic jamming aircraft.

One major change in aircraft design introduced with the Super Hornets is they are designed to reduce maintenance. The mean time between failures has increased to three times to that of any other fighter aircraft. They require only half of the maintenance downtime of other fighter aircraft.

Another valuable feature of the Hornets is their engines. The GE F404 was designed with maintainability and reliability first. The General Electric F404 engines connect to the Hornet airframe at ten points. Engine removal can be performed by a 4 man team in 20 minutes with no special equipment. These engines have proven to be robust in many conditions and resist flameout and stalls.

F/A-18 Airframe Characteristics

Somewhat different than other fighter aircraft in design, they have canted vertical stabilizers which provide high-angle-of-attack capability. Horizontal stabilators are oversized and trailing edge flaps that work as flaperons. Computer controlled large full length leading edge slats multiply movement of control surfaces at slow speeds.

F/A-18 Super Hornet First With Multi-function Displays

With the switch of a button and F/A-18 pilot could switch between fighter and attack modes of operation. In the ever changing battle scenario the operational commander has flexibility with tactical aircraft. Digital multiplex avionics bus provides the Hornets with easy upgrade capability also.

The first reports on the Hornets came in from fleet reports complimented each other by reporting the extraordinarily reliability of the F/A-18s. It was a welcome change from the reliability records of the F-4Js. Some of the other squadron started switching to the F/A-18s were the “Blue Diamonds” VFA-146, the “Argonauts” VFA-147, the “Wildcats” VAF-131 and the “Privateers” VAF-132. The “Privateers” were the Atlantic Fleets first F/A-18 squadrons.

The Blue Angels' Switch to F/A-18A

In 1986 the “Blue Angles’” made the switch to F/A-18A Hornets replacing the A-4 Skyhawk as the U.S. Navy’s Flight Demonstration Squadron. The U.S. Navy Blue Angles’ fly F/A-18A and B aircraft at special events and air shows around the world. A requirement for Blue Angles pilots is intense, with 1350 hours with aircraft carrier certification.

The F/A-18’s First Combat Operations

April of 1986 The USS Coral Sea sent the “Wildcats” of VAF-131 into combat action against Libyan air defenses in Operation Prairie Fire with an attack on Benghazi in Operation Dorado Canyon.

190 F/A-18 Hornets models A/C/Ds were deployed in the Gulf War of 1991 by the Navy and Marine Corps. On the first day of the Gulf War the F/A-18 pilots had two successful kills shooting down two MiG-21s. Hornets from the USS Saratoga in the Red Sea, while on a bombing mission to destroy an airfield in Iraq encountered the MiG-21s shot them down and completed their bombing run.

The A-6 Intruder retired in the 90s was the workhorse of the Navy. The A-6s very important role was filled F/A-18s and even to this very day the aircraft continues to break records for reliability, maintainability and availability.