VFA-34 “Blue Blasters”, the remaining F/A-18C Hornet squadron in the U.S. Navy, will perform their last flight in the Legacy Hornet this week.
The only squadron that has not transitioned to the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet yet will say farewell to the “Legacy Hornet” at their home base at NAS Oceana, Virginia, on Feb. 1, 2019.
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Although they will be officially retired in a matter of days, some F/A-18A+ Hornets (where “+” designates aircraft equipped with AN/APG-73 radars instead of the original AN/APG-65) will continue to serve in the fleet adversary support role with the Reserve as part of VFC-12 from NAS Oceana and VFA-204 from NAS New Orleans Joint Reserve Base. The Blue Angels will also continue flying their Legacy Hornets while transitioning to the Super Hornets.
“Legacy Hornets” remain in service with the U.S. Marine Corps that plans to fly the F/A-18Cs until they are replaced by the F-35B STOVL variant Lightining II stealth aircraft
Re: No more F-22s for you!
Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2019 6:21 pm
by Holman
Fitzy wrote: ↑Sun Oct 14, 2018 2:07 pm
Why are we parking multi-million dollar machines in hurricane zones, outside or in inadequate hangars? I get that no place is perfectly safe, but given the expense of these weapons, an expensive weather proof hangar seems in order.
(Delayed reply:)
The reason so much USAF and USN was based in the South was weather.
At the time we just didn't know to worry about climate.
Fitzy wrote: ↑Sun Oct 14, 2018 2:07 pm
Why are we parking multi-million dollar machines in hurricane zones, outside or in inadequate hangars? I get that no place is perfectly safe, but given the expense of these weapons, an expensive weather proof hangar seems in order.
(Delayed reply:)
The reason so much USAF and USN was based in the South was weather.
At the time we just didn't know to worry about climate.
Florida is made of sand. You'd think we'd at least be as smart as Iraq.
First put them in those big baggies that Thailand puts their cars into when there's flooding. Easy peasy!
A monthlong search has recovered more pieces of a lost Japanese F-35A stealth fighter, including part of the aircraft’s canopy and flight data recorder, according to Japan’s defense minister.
The jet went down with its pilot, Maj. Akinori Hosomi, who remains unaccounted for, in the Pacific Ocean approximately 85 miles east of Misawa Air Base, its home field in northeastern Japan, just before 7:30 p.m. April 9. A search team found parts of the fighter’s left and right rudders in the water about two hours later.
Searchers discovered more of the aircraft, including part of its canopy and flight data recorder, sometime after May 3, Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya told reporters during a news conference Tuesday.
The Defense Ministry and the Japan Self-Defense Forces are examining the parts. However, the recorder’s memory and storage medium have not been recovered, he said.
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The crash was the first loss of an A variant of the fifth-generation stealth fighter anywhere in the world. A Marine Corps F-35B, capable of short takeoffs and landings, crashed in September near the Marine air station in Beaufort, S.C.
In that case, the pilot ejected and survived. The Pentagon identified a potential problem with fuel tubes and briefly grounded all F-35s while the aircraft were inspected, and suspect parts replaced, according to an October report in Marine Corps Times.
Re: No more F-22s for you!
Posted: Wed May 08, 2019 5:09 pm
by GreenGoo
The canopy had to be recovered at all costs, lest it fall into enemy hands!
Mission accomplished.
Wait, *part* of the canopy? The search continues, spare no expense!
The crash of a U.S. Marine Corps F-35 that temporarily grounded the entire fleet of next-generation jets in 2018 was caused by a manufacturing defect in a fuel tube made by a United Technologies subcontractor, according to congressional investigators.
The defect “caused an engine fuel tube to rupture during flight, resulting in a loss of power to the engine,” the Government Accounting Office said this week in a report on major weapons systems that referred to the September crash in South Carolina. The Pentagon told the watchdog that it identified 117 aircraft -- about 40 percent of the worldwide F-35 fleet at the time -- with the same type of fuel tubes that had to be replaced.
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Aside from the defect, Pratt & Whitney’s recent track record delivering engines on time has been spotty. Deliveries surged to 81 in 2018 from 48 in 2012, according to the GAO -- yet 86% of those were delivered late, up from 48% in late 2017. The delays were due in part to an increase in the “average number of quality issues per engine” -- 941 in 2018 against 777 a year earlier, the GAO said.
Pratt & Whitney told the GAO that “its late engine deliveries increased in 2018 partially due to a subcontractor that did not have all of the needed tooling in place to produce more F-35B engines,” according to the report.
