Yeah! The Super Hornet is really cool. Nice clean lines and something to see. Here is a Canadian Hornet from the 1986 Air Fete at RAF Mildenhall, just for you, NS. I took this in the morning before the gates opened to the public. 8)
Thanks for the pic, evan.
Unfortunately, the Canadian Air Force is still using the old F/A-18A's and B's, that were bought in 1982 (called CF-18's in Canadian service). In all that time, they've only had two major avionics upgrades that I'm aware of.
Still, I guess it beats the old second hand Voodoos they were flying before that.
The best looking fighter has to be the F-22 with stealth to camoflage it and deadly turns and stuff AND it can supercruise (cruise at supersonic speed without the use of an afterburner), and bomber is B-2 (there are not much to choose anyway), and WWII, the best looking fighter is the Me-262 'cause the wing looks mad cool and bomber is the V-1(if it counts??) or if not then the He-111.
On the subject of "Might-have-beens" for just a second, the UK had the TSR2, the US had (and may yet have) the F-22, and Canada had...the CF-105 Arrow.
These pics are actually of a full-scale mock-up that was built for a made for TV movie, but they show what, in my opinion, was an awesome interceptor! Years ahead of it's time, in 1958!
It was cancelled by the government, due to massive cost overruns. They opted to buy second hand F-101 Voodoos from the USAF instead.
It pretty close to that here these days, the F-16 was developed in the 70s. The first flight of it was on January 20, 1974! The first of 20 prototype F-15 Eagles had it's first flight in July of 1972! While they are great airplanes, they are getting pretty darn old.
F-14 first flight December 21, 1970. F-18, June 9, 1974. You get the idea. We need to get some fresh technology into new airframes.
The F-15s did not do well against the Indian Air force recently. The Indians were flying the newer MiGs and Sukhois. That should have been a wake up call to the JCS and the pentagon. I hope the got the message 5 by 5, if you know what I mean.