Northrop FA-18 Hornet - "Golden Dragons" Aircraft From Franklin Mint

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Northrop FA-18 Hornet - "Golden Dragons" Aircraft From Franklin Mint

Northrop FA-18 Hornet - "Golden Dragons" - Scale Model Warbird
Part Number: B11C986
Availability: Available Now
Approximately 13 3/4" (34.9 cm) in length; 10 5/8" (27 cm) wingspan. Scale 1:48.

Northrop FA-18 Hornet - Scale Model Warbird - Description

·	The buzz is on how it converted from fighter intercept to ground attack mode in about an hour.

·	America’s first-strike fighter proved its mettle in Desert Storm.

·	A highly versatile war machine that shot down enemy fighters and bombed targets with deadly accuracy.

·	Hand assembled, hand painted, the Hornet is marked in detail for the world-famous Golden Dragons.

The F/A-18 Hornet is a modern all-weather carrier strike fighter jet, designed to attack both ground and aerial targets. Designed in the 1970s, it is in service with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps, as well as the air forces of several other nations. Its primary missions are fighter escort, fleet air defense, suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD), interdiction, close and air support, and reconnaissance. Its versatility and reliability have proven it to be a valuable carrier asset, though it has been criticized for its lack of range and payload compared to its contemporaries.

The growth version follow-on to the F/A-18 is the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

History

The F/A-18 design began as the Northrop YF-17 Cobra, one of two competing designs for the USAF's Lightweight Fighter Program, on which the USN was a minor partner. The YF-17 prototype first flew in 1974. Because of its twin-engine design the YF-17 was more appealing to the Navy. Northrop teamed with McDonnell Douglas to capitalize on the latter's extensive experience in building carrier aircraft, including the highly successful F-4. When the two services ended up selecting different aircraft, McDonnell Douglas became the primary contractor for the Navy design (McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in 1997). Northrop (later Northrop Grumman) provides fuselage sections and vertical stabilizers for air frame.

The Navy's design concept originated from Vice Admiral Kent Lee. He drew on his experience as a naval aviator in WWII, where F4U Corsair fighters hastily converted for bombing with jury-rigged bomb racks proved to be versatile assets, capable of defending themselves once they had dropped their bombs. He and his supporters pushed for the VFAX concept, a cheap and lightweight strike fighter, to complement the F-14 Tomcat which had become operational and was just being introduced to the carrier air wings in 1973.

F/A-18 Hornets (A and B variants) were first test-flown in 1978, and entered service in 1983, replacing the F-4 Phantom II and the A-7 Corsair II. The F/A-18 first saw combat action in 1986, when Hornets from the USS Coral Sea (CV-43) flew SEAD missions against Libyan air defenses during the attack on Benghazi.

After a production run of 371 F/A-18As, manufacture shifted to the F/A-18C in September 1987. As the A-6 Intruder was retired in the 1990s, its role was filled by the F/A-18. The F/A-18 demonstrated its versatility and reliability during Operation Desert Storm, shooting down enemy fighters and subsequently bombing enemy targets with the same aircraft on the same mission, and breaking all records for tactical aircraft in availability, reliability, and maintainability. The aircraft's survivability was proven by Hornets taking direct hits from surface-to-air missiles, recovering successfully, being repaired quickly, and flying again the next day. Two F/A-18's were lost in the Gulf War, both for reasons unknown. US Navy pilots Lt. Robert Dwayer (Air Wing Pilot VFA-87??) and LCDR M. Scott Speicher (VFA-81) were killed in the first hours of the air campaign. F/A-18's were credited with two kills, both of MiG-21's, during that conflict.[1]

In the 1990s the US Navy faced the retirement of its aging F-14 Tomcat, A-6 Intruder, EA-6 Prowler airframes without proper replacements even in development. To answer this deficiency, the Navy developed the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Despite its designation, it is not an upgrade of the F/A-18 Hornet, but rather, a new, larger airframe utilizing the design concepts of the Hornet. Until the deployment of the F-35C, Hornets and Super Hornets will serve complementary roles in the US Navy carrier arsenal.

Design characteristics

The F/A-18 is a twin engine, mid-wing, multi-mission tactical aircraft. It is superbly maneuverable, owing to its good thrust to weight ratio, digital fly-by-wire control system, and leading edge extensions (LEX). The LEX allow the Hornet to remain controllable at high angles of attack. This is because the LEX produce powerful vortices over the wings, creating turbulent airflow over the wings and thus delaying or eliminating the aerodynamic separation responsible for stall, allowing the Hornet's wings to generate lift several times the aircraft's weight, despite high angles of attack. The Hornet is therefore capable of extremely tight turns over a large range of speeds.

The Hornet was among the first aircraft to heavily utilize multi-function displays, which at the switch of a button allow the pilot to perform either fighter or attack roles or both. This "force multiplier" capability gives the operational commander more flexibility in employing tactical aircraft in a rapidly changing battle scenario. It was the first Navy aircraft to incorporate a digital multiplex avionics bus, enabling easy upgrades.

The Hornet is also notable for having been designed with maintenance in mind, and as a result has required far less downtime than its counterparts, the F-14 Tomcat and the A-6 Intruder. Its mean time between failure is three times greater than any other Navy strike aircraft, and requires half the maintenance time. For example, whereas replacing the engine on the A-4 Skyhawk required removing the aircraft's tail, the engine on the Hornet is attached at only three points and can be directly removed without excessive disassembly.

The General Electric F404-GE-400 or F404-GE-402 engines powering the Hornet were also innovative that they were designed with operability, reliability, and maintainability first. The result is an engine that, while unexceptional on paper in terms of rated performance, demonstrates exceptional robustness under a variety of conditions and is resistant to stall and flameout. By contrast, the Pratt & Whitney TF-30 engines that power the F-14A are notoriously prone to flameout under certain flight conditions.

The engine air intake of the Hornet is notable among its contemporaries for being "fixed", unlike the F-14, F-15, and F-16 which have variable geometry or variable ramp engine air intakes. The variable geometry enables high-speed aircraft to keep the velocity of the air reaching the engine below supersonic. This is one speed limiting factor in the Hornet design. Instead, the Hornet uses bleed air vents on the inboard surface of the engine air intake ducts to slow and reduce the amount of air reaching the engine. While not as effective as variable geometry, the bleed air technique functions well enough to achieve near Mach 2 speeds, which is within the designed mission requirements. The less sophisticated design is also more robust.

Because it was designed as a light multirole aircraft to complement the specialized F-14 and A-6 airframes, it had a relatively low fuel fraction. That is, its internal fuel capacity is small relative to its take-off weight, at around 23%. Most aircraft of its class has a fuel fraction between .30 to .35. This situation was exacerbated by the addition of new avionics over its lifespan, further reducing the fuel fraction.

Golden Dragons Squadron

The squadron was established as Fighter Squadron 153 on 26 March 1945, flying the F6F "Hellcat." The squadron’s first deployment was aboard USS ANTIETAM (CV-36) on 31 March 1947. Following the deployment, the squadron title was changed to Fighter Squadron 15A, then later to fighter Squadron 151. In 1949, the squadron began training in the F8F "Bearcat" at NAS Alameda, California. In January 1950 the squadron sailed from Alameda aboard USS BOXER (CV-21), and upon their return, transitioned to the F4U "Corsair." The squadron was designated Fighter Squadron 192 on 15 February 1950. VF-192 made two deployments aboard USS PRINCETON (CV-37) in which they participated in the Korean War between November 1950 and November 1952.

Early in 1953 the Golden Dragons moved to NAS Moffet Field, California and entered the jet age by receiving the F9F-5 "Panther" fresh off the assembly line. The Dragons departed in USS ORISKANY (CVA-34) in September 1953, and during that cruise to the Orient, the pilots participated in the filming of "Bridges of Toko Ri" and "Men of the Fighting Lady." It was the debut of these two films that earned the squadron the name "World Famous Golden Dragons." On 19 January 1956, the mission of the squadron changed to include a special weapons delivery capability in the new F9F-6 "Cougar," and on 15 March 1956, the official designation of the squadron was changed from Fighter to Attack Squadron 192.

Through the next few years the squadron cycled through the FJ-4B "Fury" and in July 1959, after an entire exchange of planes, maintainers and support equipment with VA-216, the Golden Dragons were flying the A4D-2 "Skyhawk," less formally known as the "Mighty Midget Atomic Bomber." After returning from a seven month WESTPAC cruise in May 1960, the Dragons received the new A4D-2N all weather "Skyhawk." In December 1962 the squadron moved from Moffet Field to NAS Lemoore, California and on 21 November 1964, after completing almost ten months in the Western Pacific, the Dragons returned from their fourth consecutive cruise aboard the USS BON HOMME RICHARD (CVA-31). After a short four month turnaround the "World Famous Golden Dragons" deployed aboard the "Bonnie Dick" in April 1965 for a ten month Orient cruise, during which the squadron spent eight months at sea in support of American policy in Southeast Asia. A new, more powerful "Skyhawk," the A4E, with the ability to carry a greater bomb load was received in June 1966. It was in this aircraft that one of the Golden Dragons distinguished himself in the air. LCDR Michael J. Estocin earned the Congressional Medal of Honor for his gallantry and courage on the 20th and 26th of April 1967 while flying on a missile suppression mission. In his memory, the Navy’s award for the best FA-18 squadron is called the Michael J. Estocin Award. In July 1967, the Golden Dragons became the first operational fleet squadron to receive the new A4F "Skyhawk" and in December of that year the Dragons participated in a deployment aboard the USS TICONDEROGA (CVA-14) which the squadron dropped more ordnance and flew more combat sorties than any other A4 squadron. In April 1969, the "World Famous Golden Dragons" made their last deployment with the A4F "Skyhawk" aboard the USS ORISKANY (CVA-34). It was during this cruise that the squadron was recognized for an amazing safety record during extensive combat operations, specifically, 55 accident-free months, 30,477 flight hours and 11,580 carrier landings. No other carrier jet squadron had ever achieved such a safety record.

The squadron took delivery of their first A-7E "Corsair II" in February 1970. On 6 November 1970, having finished a one year turnaround with its newly acquired A-7E aircraft, Attack Squadron 192 deployed again to WESTPAC, this time aboard the USS KITTY HAWK (CVA-63). During this highly successful cruise, VA-192’s "Laotian Highway Patrol" set an all time record for ordnance dropped on a single cruise, 15 million pounds, while flying more than 6,600 flight hours and amassing 2,901 arrested landings. Most significant is the fact that the Dragons delivered this record tonnage of ordnance on enemy supply routes day and night, in all kinds of weather, without losing a single man or aircraft. After returning to NAS Lemoore in July 1971, the Dragons immediately began preparing for another combat cruise to Southeast Asia. On 17 February 1972 the squadron departed on their sixth combat cruise. Once again, flying their first combat sorties on 5 March 1972, the Golden Dragons broke more records by dropping over 19 million pounds of ordnance and flying over 3,600 combat strikes while participating in seven combat line periods and a record 192 days on the line.

From late 1973 to 1978 the "World Famous Golden Dragons" made several deployments to the WESTPAC aboard the USS KITTY HAWK (CV-63). On 3 March 1979 the squadron embarked aboard USS AMERICA (CV-66) at Norfolk, Virginia for their first ever Mediterranean cruise. The squadron deployed for a second Mediterranean cruise aboard the USS AMERICA on 12 April 1981. The Dragons came home to NAS Lemoore on 12 November 1981 after spending 202 of 220 days at sea.

In November of 1982, the squadron joined CVW-9 and became a part of the USS RANGER (CV-61) team. After completing workups, the RANGER and Airwing set sail for an extended deployment. Before heading for WESTPAC, the RANGER Battle Group was ordered to take up station off the coast of Central America as a result of tensions between Honduras and Nicaragua. After tensions eased the RANGER moved to the Indian Ocean and during this time the squadron spent 121 consecutive days at sea.

By early 1985, the Golden Dragons began to prepare for transition to the FA-18 Hornet. About half the A-7E’s and personnel who maintained them had been transferred from the squadron when the Dragons were ordered to MCAS Iwakuni, Japan under the Marine Corps Unit Deployment Program. In less than three months the squadron was fully manned and equipped with 12 A-7E’s, and on 3 June launched for a three day transpacific flight to Iwakuni. Upon arrival the squadron became part of Marine Air Group Twelve under the First Marine Air wing.

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