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Snapshot
November 18, 2008
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On Saturday morning, November 17, 1978, the McDonnell Douglas F-18A Hornet lifted off for the first time from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. Jack Krings, the company's chief test pilot, took the fighter on a 50-minute flight in the airspace between St. Louis and Springfield, Illinois, topping out at 24,000 feet and 345 mph. The jet's handling qualities exceeded his expectations, and he found it both stable and agile. For much of the last three decades the F-18 has served the U.S. Navy as a versatile, all-weather, light attack aircraft, and has been super-sized by 30 percent to become the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. That aircraft has replaced the F-14 Tomcat as the Navy's primary interceptor, and protects the fleet as a fighter while carrying out attack missions that demand more range and payload than those offered by the legacy F-18, shown here.
