The F/A-18 Fighter Jet

by Liz Seyi Digital marketing manager

The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 is a carrier-based multirole fighter that first flew on 29th November 1995, ahead of a formal introduction in 1999.

With an empty weight of 32,100 lb (14,552 kg) for the F/A-18E, a thrust of up to 17,000 lbs from each engine and a maximum takeoff weight of 66,000 lb (29,937 kg), together with Mach 1.6 speed, this is a truly formidable attack aircraft.

Attack planes can be defined as aircraft specialised for precision low-level attacks on ground targets, often in support of attacking air forces. While this distinguishes an attack aircraft from the less precise operation of a conventional bomber, many military planes have become multipurpose in practice, combining ground attack roles with other capabilities.

An impressive lineage of carrier planes

The F/A-18 comes from a long tradition of carrier planes, dating back to the moment in 1917 when Squadron Commander Edwin Harris Dunning became the first man to land an aeroplane successfully on a moving ship - namely a Sopwith Pup on HMS Furious.

Aircraft carriers continue to play a crucial role in naval warfare, but have also been used for less obvious applications, such as bringing relief to the stricken victims of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

McDonnell Douglas, meanwhile, has its own rich history as a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defence contractor, dating back to the establishment of the Douglas Aircraft Company by Donald Douglas in 1921. It subsequently became a multi-million dollar business and was responsible for producing the most important propeller-driven transport of all time, the DC-3.

McDonnell Douglas was formed by the merger of the Douglas Aircraft Company with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967, and itself was merged with Boeing in 1997. 500 examples of the F/A-18 have been built as of April 2011, at a unit cost of $70.5 million and a total procurement cost of $48.09 billion.

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