Air Power Series>1:72 die-cast display model>F-18>HA3550
CF-18 "2016 DEMO" flown by Captain Ryan "Roid" Kean, 2016
General Background
The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F/A-18 Hornet is a supersonic twin engine all-weather night fighter and attack aircraft. The F/A-18s first flew in November 1978 and the first production flight on April 12, 1980. The first 380 aircraft were F/A-18As and in September 1987 production switched to the F/A-18C. Variants A and C are single-seat aircraft while B and D are tandem-seats. The Hornet can operate from either aircraft carriers or land bases with the capability of in flight refueling. A total of 1,480 A-D variants were built.
The Aircraft
The 2016 RCAF CF-18 Demo aircraft design was developed by the 410 TF (Operational
Training) Squadron’s graphic artist Jim Belliveau. The scheme represents the British
Commonwealth Air Training Plan (BCATP). The yellow represents the training aircraft, the black
is for the dark times of war and the red is for flames against the darkness. The BCATP ran from
1939 until 1945 and was carried out in more than one hundred communities across Canada;
training 131,553 aircrew. The aircraft will be piloted by Captain Ryan “Roid” Kean.
Specifications :
| Number of aircraft purchased: | 62 CF-18A / 18 CF-18B |
| Crew: | 1 x CF-18A / 2 x CF-18B |
| Dimensions | |
| Length: | 56 ft 0 in (17.07 m) |
| Wingspan: | 40 ft 0 in (12.31 m) with Sidewinders |
| Height: | 15 ft 4 in (4.66 m) |
| Weight: | |
| Empty: | 23,049 lb (10,455 kg) |
| Loaded: | 37,150 lb (16,850 kg) |
| Maximum Take off: | 51,550 lb (23,400 kg) |
| Performance | |
| Power Plant: | 2 × General Electric F404-GE-400 turbofans, 16,000 lbf (71.2 kN) per engine |
| Maximum Speed: | Mach 1.8 (1,127 mph, 1,814 km/h) @ 36,100 ft (11,000 m) |
| Combat Radius: | 330 mi (290 nmi, 537 km) on hi-lo-lo-hi mission |
| Ferry Range: | 2,070 mi (1,800 nmi, 3,330 km) (range without ordnance) |
| Service Ceiling: | 50,000 ft (15,000 m) |
| Rate of Climb: | 50,000 ft/min (254 m/s) |
| Armament: | Nine Weapon/ Store Stations (5 pylons: 1 Under Fuselage and 4 Wing Stations) (2 LAU 116 located on sides of fuselage: deploys AIM 7 Sparrow and AMRAAM Missiles)(2 LAU 7 located on the wing tips: Deploys AIM 9 Sidewinder Missile), carrying up to 13700 lb (6215 kg) of missiles, rockets, bombs, fuel tanks, and pods |
| 1 × 20 mm M61A1 Vulcan internal Gatling gun with 578 rounds, with a firing rate of 4,000 or 6,000 rounds per minute | |
| Missiles: | Air-To-Air - AIM-9 Sidewinder, AIM-120 AMRAAM, AIM-7 Sparrow |
| Air-to-ground - AGM-65 Maverick, CRV7 rockets | |
| Bombs - Paveway, Mk 82, Mk 83, Mk 84, GBU-10, -12, -16 and -24 laser guided bombs | |
| Avionics: | Raytheon AN/APG-73 radar |
| BAE Systems AN/APX-111 IFF | |
| Rockwell Collins AN/ARC-210 RT-1556/ARC VHF/UHF Radio | |
| General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems AN/AYK-14 XN-8 mission computer | |
| Smiths Aerospace AN/AYQ-9 Stores Management System |