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Thanks Matt. Nobody seems to give the F/A-18's enough credit. The E/F models are especially potent warbirds. All most people seem to focus on are the sexy maneuvers performed by Russian stunt planes. Aerobatics won't win wars.
And the most impressive solo performance that I have ever seen was at McChord AFB by a Canadian CF-18. Stole the show!
The other thing that hurts about the F14 going away is that now since very early in carrier aviation, there are no Grumman fighters flying or Voughts either for that matter.
The history of aviation though relatively short is rich in all countries. Fascinating to read about. As was said though the number of companies that have the ability to build aircraft today grows shorter every year. I also am afraid that the era of the manned aircraft is drawing to a close particularly in military aviation. A number of years ago I went to a fly in of Beechcraft Staggerwings in of all places Gunnison, CO. I have photographs somewhere of that. There must have been at least a dozen there at one time. What a sight.
How did I know I would hear from you on that? I yield to your enthusiasm and knowledge and retract the statement. Please forgive me. On the Beech Staggerwing. There was a famous bush pilot who lived in Gunnison name Rocky Warren and it was he who was responsible for the fly in there. There is a story(I think it is true) which is hilarious about Rocky and his supercharged Staggerwing. One day Rocky was doing aerial photography over the front range at high altitude( I think 27000 feet, but my memory is not all that good anymore) and a Delta DC8 captain, who obviously had never seen a staggerwing, radioed Denver control, identified himself, and said ther is some idiot up here at this altitude in a bi plane and he is upside down.
On the story about the light weight fighter trend, I believe there was what was called The Light Weight Fighter Mafia in the Air Force. They believed that our fighters had gotten too complicated and bulky with an example being the F4. They wanted the USAF to buy the F20 in bulk. I believe Yeager was a charter member of this group. The F20 was not procured but out of this controversy came the competition between the YF16 and the YF17. The Navy saw possibilities in the YF17 because of the two engines and out of that a/c came the FA18. I wonder if one can call the FA18 a lightweight fighter. For a heavyweight it seems like the F15 has had some success.