Over Rockland county NY.. Anyone know what they are??? More pics http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12854&page=198 where would they be flying out of...this shot was 30 miles north of NYC Image Unavailable, Please Login
They look like F/A18 Hornets. I'm sure there is some part of the designation that I'm missing, but the silhouette is pretty distinct. Gio P
top speed on the F/A-18 Hornet is Mach 1.8, which is about 1,190mph. I'm a pretty big aviation buff, and normally I could tell you what base they're from, and what squadron, based on the plane markings, but because of the angle of the photo, I can't really give you that information. The markings are hidden. Sorry.
Might have been the angle I was looking at, but on one of the passes, I could swear they were connected by a device, like a refueling hose!
Michael- There is such a thing as buddy refueling, but not done with the hook extended, which might interfere with the refueling line. Taz Terry Phillips Image Unavailable, Please Login
Had one to Mach 1.55...and that was stripped down. The airframe can take 1.8, but the old GE F404's would have a hard time getting it there. Would have taken a few climbs and descents to get it faster....using a Ritowski climb. I ran out of airspace. The newer EPE (Enhanced Performance) engines could make it go faster....never had an EPE jet and a supersonic corridor at the same time Dogdish
Bill- Did you ever try buddy refueling? We did not do that with fighters in the USAF for obvious reasons. Taz Terry Phillips
Taz, Did it many times on the Midway with KA-6D's.....that was the largest tanker we could fit on the Midway. We didn't have any Hornet tankers back then. No S-3's for us either. Felt sorry for the tankers, as they were always the last to land....but they had lots of gas and could go around multiple times. We had one or two looks at the deck, then had to go up and tank for an additional 2500 more pounds of gas for another two tries to trap aboard. Daytime was almost enjoyable, Nighttime was, well...... 95% of the flying time out there, I spent trying to save fuel. Great way to "hone" your combat skills. All that being said, KC-135 was my fav.....sometimes it wasn't pretty, but if you could get in the basket, you were gettin' gas. Had a few sqaudron mates pull the refueling probes off...oops. Dogdish PS...in Taz's photo, the front one is Super Hornet, the back is a classic Hornet. Only Supers have refueling capability, as I recall.
Bill- That actually sounds like fun except for the always saving fuel part. My airplane carried 34,000 lbs of JP-8 internally, so it was not normally a problem. Plus my runway was not bobbing around in the ocean. Day carrier landings sound like fun, night, not so much. We have had just about every aircraft type come back with a boom still stuck in the receptacle. Whoever did it always had a pretty good bar bill that night, especially at Nellis. Not too common in F-111s, which were very stable on the boom. I was wondering about that photo, because I did not know the F/A-18C/D could do that. Looks like it was because they could not. The Navy liked the Marine's fancy mini-F-15E F/A-18D so much, I think they bought a bunch of F/A-18Fs with similar capability. I guess if you are replacing A-6Es, you just about had to have the refueling capability. None of my F-15 buddies liked screwing with F/A-18s because of the nose authority the little beauty had. Looked like no way one could bring ordnance to bear, and, suddenly, Fox 2. Taz Terry Phillips
