Hornet: The Inside Story of the F/A-18

by Orr Kelly

The fascinating true story of the controversial development and deployment of the supersonic fighter jet that changed aerial warfare foreverThe McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet was born in 1978, a state-of-the-art supersonic fighter and attack aircraft with a top speed of Mach 1.8, more than one thousand miles per hour. It was versatile, fast, and reliable, and no war machine in the air could match it. The marines adopted it first, followed by the navy, impressed by its incomparable ability to engage in close aerial combat while at the same time efficiently delivering explosive payloads to designated enemy targets. It became the aircraft of choice for the US Navy’s famous Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron in 1986 and served ably in combat from its first mission—America’s launched air strike against Libya that same year—through 1991’s Operation Desert Storm and well beyond. Yet the Hornet has always been shrouded in controversy, and while still in its planning stages, it sparked an unprecedented political battle that nearly doomed the miraculous machine before it could take flight.Orr Kelly, the acclaimed military author who has notably chronicled the remarkable histories of the US Navy SEALs and other branches of America’s Special Forces, tells the fascinating true story of the F/A-18 Hornet—how it came to be, how it almost wasn’t, and how it forever altered the way our nation’s wars are fought.

Genres: History, Aviation

347 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 1990

Reviews

[Keith Budzynski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Development history of the F/A-18

This book is about the development history of the F/A-18 and the challenges bringing it to the fleet. It also covers the early deployment of the aircraft. The book is almost 30 years old. The book was published before Desert Storm which would have given a lot of additional information on the plane's use in combat.

[Brian Yoshimura · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a wonderful read of an aircraft that I didn't look as admiringly on like the vaunted F-15. However, after reading this book I gained much appreciation for the Hornet. The author clearly loves military aviation as much as I do and his research into the Hornet was exhausting. The upside was that he got the chance of a life time to be in the back seat of this magnificent jet.

[Roy Hector · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a fairly short book, I managed to finish it in only a couple of days. It's also a bit dated, covering only up to the F/A-18A/B's first combat deployment over Libya. Not much about the F/A-18C/D, much more the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.

But it does give a very good account of the political and bureacratic maneuverings related to the development of the aircraft, and there are a number of historical and technical gems as well all throughout the book like:
- The origin of the "Strike-Fighter" concept, which goes all the way to World War 2;
- The Hornet's excellent handling characteristics, enabling it to maintain high angles of attack even at low speeds;
- The development of the Multi-Mode Radar, Glass Cockpit, etc;
- The development of it's "dogfighting" F404 engines

It also delved into the issues that plagued the Hornet during its development, namely:
- The Landing Gear issue;
- The Slow Roll Rate issue at low altitude which stemmed from the excessive flexing of the wings;
- The accelerated life cycle of the vertical tail surfaces, later found to be related to the vortexes generated by the LEX;

Most of these problems were eventually fixed, and I feel reading these are now also significant in light of the problems plaguing the F-35. It is a clear example that aircraft in development will always have problems associated with it, but a good one will always be able to eventually overcome it.

Although the F-15A and F-16A used Multi-Function Displays (MFDs) in the cockpit, they only used a couple and retained most of the dials and gauges. The Hornet thus with its three MFDs and much less dials and gauges could be said as one of the main trendsetters in the use of the "Glass Cockpit", much of which we still see in the newer aircraft nowadays.

Overall a very good book, highly recommended if you are a fan of military aircraft technology ...

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plans for a new jet fighter began after a spy plane took a photo of a Russian T-4 plane, much like the F-111, that we were using and had been since May of 1965. So two men who at one time friends were tasked by congress and a committee to come up with a new aircraft. The author takes you back in time to the very beginnings of flight and through some of the development from WWI. He does give credit to Germany, France, and Britain for different improvements that were made during the war. He also gives you a look into some of the pilots of that time as well. He then talks about that lack of any real improvement in aircrafts for the U.S. during this time. It was not for the lack of trying, for men were coming up with plans but were being voted down. Along with building up the Navy. It really wasn’t until the attack on Pearl Harbor that really got the ball rolling. Again once the war was over nothing was done until 65 with that being a new fighter jet. Now seeing that the Russians had a jet equal or more powerful had gotten people attention in the Pentagon. Both the Marines and the Navy wanted their hands in the project and a say so in the design. The back fighting between the two branches along with the aviation contractors coming in towards the end really caused for a bitter fight. As the story goes along the Marines get the contract but the plane has flaws because it cannot meet the specs for carrier landings which is what they mostly needed the aircraft for. A very good book in looking at all of the fighting it takes to get something done. Overall a good book. I got this book from net galley.

[C. Elliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this books after buying the flight simulator DCS F/A-18C Hornet to get a better understanding of that aircraft's history. Among military aviation buffs it's pretty well-known that the F/A-18 Hornet started out as the F-17 Cobra that lost to the F-16 Falcon during the Lightweight Fighter fly-off in the mid-1970s. This book gets into the history of the Lightweight Fighter's inception and development - which was fought tooth-and-nail within the Pentagon against the generals and admirals who wanted bigger, heavier and more expensive fighters - and the Navy's sneaky (and borderline illegal) decision to pick the loser in the competition. It also gets into the political fight in Congress over the expense of the program, which strongly parallels the current-day battles over the F-35 Lightening II.

The book gets into how advances in computer technology made merging the F-18 and A-18 - which differed only in the avionics boxes installed - possible and the development of the first production "glass cockpit" which has since become standard even in light general aviation. At the time of it entering service the F/A-18 was by far the most technologically advanced fighter in the world with a cockpit that (in its day) was like something out of science fiction.