The Super Hornet by velocicrapper

Photography • Aviation • posted on Aug 01, 2005

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Description

Taken at the Planes of Fame Museum (Chino Airport, California) a day before the Airshow 2005 - May 21-22 For more, see http://www.warbird-photos.com This is by far one of the most special images I have ever taken. This was my first air-to-air flight with a modern day jet fighter, and it being a F/A-18 Hornet... my second favorite aircraft of all time. This had been a dream of mine since I started aviation photography... and on May 20th I got the chance. I'm in the co-pilot's seat of a Queen air sticking my head into a 'bubble' window so I can shoot backwards as the F/A-18F Super Hornet from VFA-103 "Jolly Rogers." Pilot's code name is 'Sweaty.' Here she has the Super Hornet in a very high alpha with slight flaps in order to slow down enough to stay with us. This shot was taken just after a World War 2 Grumman F8F-2 Bearcat had pulled away from the US Navy Legacy Flight we did. I'll post that photo in a future update. No matter how long I do aviation photography... this one photo session will be my most favorite above all else: The First time I could look over and see a F/A-18 Super Hornet flying formation. The US Navy Boeing F/A-18F Super Hornet is the Navy's most recent addition. The Super Hornets were brought on board to replace the aging F-14 Tomcats on carriers and such. That transistion finished recently and the Tomcats have just about all been decomissioned. The Super Hornet has many updated features and structural changes from the normal F/A-18 Hornets. The Super Hornet is longer and larger, but the two main changes that most people knotice are the square F-14 like intakes (compared to the normal Hornet rounded intakes) and the 'wing root fin' that is under the cockpit that connects to the wing is one giant curve instead of a wavey shape. Camera is a Canon Rebel XT EOS 350D DSLR (8mp) with a Canon 28-105mm USM lens. Image was reduced in size.

Comments (14)

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jmbwalsh

3:13AM | Mon, 01 August 2005

Wow! What a truely fantastic shot!

Raven_427

3:48AM | Mon, 01 August 2005

A moment to dream of, indeed. Very well done :-)

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Dann-O

4:30AM | Mon, 01 August 2005

Great pic 9 years in the air force closest I got to this was sitting on the ramp in full AB doing some tests. 　

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tallpindo

5:09AM | Mon, 01 August 2005

I'm looking at the little faired humps with cooling air inlets on the tops of both fins and thinking "Growler." Gee, I lost all this weight and I can't get a flight and when I was 280 the offer was for Monday. The photographer is still busy. My videos and telemetry, well try to explain what a teleo is.

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