F/A-18 Hornet

F/A-18 Hornet. NASA Tail Number 842. , This F/A-18 Hornet (bureau number 161214) is a pre-production A-Model airplane whose first prototype rolled out of the McDonnell Douglas Plant on September 13, 1978. The Carrier-based Naval strike fighter did not become operational for several years after that. Derived from the Northrop YF-17, the Hornet was developed and produced jointly by Northrop and McDonnell Douglas. This particular F-18 served initially as a test aircraft for the U.S. Navy at Patuxent River, Maryland, before coming to the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center (then named the Ames-Dryden Flight Research Facility) in the fall of 1990. From then until 1997 when it was placed in its present location as a permanent loan to the City of Lancaster, it completed 513 flights as a chase and general support aircraft. As such it provided a second set of eyes to pilots flying research flights in such aircraft as the X-29 forward-swept wing advanced technology demonstrator; the SR-71; the oldest B-52 still flying; and the X-31. It was used as a chase plane in other important projects - the validation of the space shuttle drag-chute deployment system, tests with two F-16XL aircraft investigating and helping achieve laminar flow on wing surfaces, and tests with the F-18 High Angle of Attack Research Vehicle. Thus, the F-18 842 played a part through its initial Navy tests in the final development of the production models of important fighter aircraft in the U.S. arsenal. Then through its support role at Dryden, it contributed to significant aeronautical research in support of American aviation.