Sea Legs for the Super Hornet

摘要

In february 1996, the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet Engineering, Manufacturing, and Development program got under way at the Naval Air Warfare Center at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland. The Super Hornet, 25 percent larger than the Hornet and with greater range and more powerful engines, had made its first flight the previous November at the McDonnell Douglas facilities in St. Louis. As a 30-year-old Navy lieutenant fresh out of test pilot school, I had followed this aircraft from individual components on the manufacturing floor through delivery to Pax River. And as one of the program's five test pilots, I began flying Fl, the first F model, in carrier suitability tests as soon as it arrived.