6
$\begingroup$

This is my first post here! yay! Today I ate at the awesome "Perfect Landing" restaurant at Centennial Airport. My dad said he thought they were FA-18s but I honestly have no idea. It was awesome because we saw the pilots through the window of the flight crew lounge in their military suits. We also saw them go out with some little kids and their families to show them the jets while they were being inspected before takeoff. Really cool to see.

enter image description here

Improve this question
$\endgroup$
11
$\begingroup$

That is a Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet. The Super Hornet can be readily identified from legacy F-18s by its larger size, enlarged, hood-like leading edge extensions, larger flaps and flight control surfaces, and the rhombohedral shaped engine intakes to reduce the aircraft’s frontal radar cross section. It’s tail insignia indicates that it’s a line aircraft with the United States Navy’s VFA-143 “Pukin’ Dogs” strike fighter squadron based out of NAS Oceania, near Norfolk, VA.

Improve this answer
$\endgroup$
6
  • $\begingroup$ +1 for the squadron. I can see an 'AG', also on those, any idea what it stands for? $\endgroup$
    – ymb1
    May 20 '18 at 1:16
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ It’s a unit specific tail code. All VFA-143 aircraft wear the AG code on the tail. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/… $\endgroup$
    – Carlo Felicione
    May 20 '18 at 1:31
  • $\begingroup$ Wow I can’t believe how much information you can tell me from 1 picture! That’s really cool and now I know some awesome information about the squadron itself. There were 3 of these jets here. $\endgroup$
    – Sorsor_7
    May 20 '18 at 1:39
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Wow - “rhombohedral shaped”- after I look that up, I am definitely going to have to find a way to use that phrase in a conversation this week! +1 $\endgroup$
    – Ralph J
    May 20 '18 at 16:44
  • $\begingroup$ That's a very complete answer. Well done. $\endgroup$
    – Mast
    Oct 6 '18 at 14:26

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.