Now the Hornet’s got wing cracks…
Inspections Ordered for F/A-18 Hornets
The Navy is inspecting its entire fleet of F/A-18 Hornets after discovering cracks in more than a dozen of the planes’ wings.
There have been no flight mishaps and no planes have been grounded, the Navy said.
Navy mechanics found the cracks this month during routine post-flight maintenance on a currently deployed plane, said Lt. Clayton Doss, a spokesman.
The damage was in the aluminum outer wing panel outboard aileron hinge. Ailerons help control the rolling motion of the aircraft, so a failure of this hinge could lead to further damage and the loss of the plane.
Subsequent inspections found similar cracks in 14 other planes. Five of the planes are deployed and are scheduled for immediate repair. The other 10 were in depot, reserve or training status, Doss said.
The Navy has issued a call to inspect all 636 of its older “legacy” Hornets — the A, B, C and D variants. There are 112 such Hornets deployed worldwide; the remainder are in depot, reserve or training status.
The F/A-18 Super Hornets — E’s and F’s — are not affected.
Will this accelerate the argument for JSFs or just push for more Es and Fs?
– Christian
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
If we could not afford the cheap ass COTS Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter(which was far less technological than the RAH-66 Comanche,even though the “PUBLICITY” said it cost more than the Comanche),then how can we afford any more F/A-18E/F Super Hornets & variants,F-22 Raptors,&/or F-35A/B/C Lightning II’s? Our nation is in recession,we cannot afford much of anything. Also,it looks like Obama(or as I like to call him,”Obamination of desolation”) will be our next president since McCain(“McChurian Candidate”) is self-destructing,just like Bob Dole did in 1996.
Anyway,I’m sick & tired of hearing arguments about the F-22 Raptor & the F-35 JSF & how many we should buy(along with the argument for more Super Hornets) when it is so damn obvious to everyone that we CANNOT AFFORD any of them(recession,remember?). We cannot even afford to buy more Predators/Reapers nor any other such UAV variations. All the dreams of what our future armed forces should be like & what weapons they should have are nothing but idle fantasies because we are too damn bankrupt to afford anything right now.
Space War Express had an interesting article about the relevance of the Tu-95 Bear in the 21st Century. It is amazing that the Russians are STILL flying a turbo-prop bomber & our “broke-ass” country cannot afford to put our advanced technology to work to counter such an anachronism.
Roy,
Whatcha talkin’ about? Don’t you know that when B-Rock gets in office his tax on the evil rich man is going to solve all of our problems and all services will be flying off in brand-new F-22′s powered by unicorn farts and rainbows? I mean, it’s not like we’ll need them, because all our enemies will suddenly love us…. so that’s pretty groovy and everything.
/Just in case…. I’m stocking up on 7.62X51 and canned goods….
Semper Fi
You guys what are you talking about obama needs to build the Civilian Defense Forces and they need the raptor and Abrams tanks and stuff to sit in america preferably in more conservitive states to stop evil christian terrorist.
To do this i think they need a good uniform brown with maybe some lightning flashes
OOOOO and to stop the kids from becomeing radicalized in church we can have the go to voluntary camps to learn how to serve the homeland and the Party!! We can just have the schools sign them up or lose funding!!!
HEIL OBAMA!!!!FOR THE PARTY !! FOR THE HOMELAND!!
It’s pretty sad commentary when Roy is the one more on topic than any other commenters. Maybe when all the baby boomers die along with all their hatred from the 60′s and 70′s then we can get on with running the country. That’s about as purple as you can be in my book.
FYI, the JSF is a dead man walking. You have seen the Navy scrap the DDG-1000 in favor of more DDG-51s. You have seen the Army chop the ARH. What’s next? JSF and possible even FCS.
Our government can’t focus on fighting two wars, purchasing two 5th generation aircraft, and go through a global recession. Let alone get other nations to continue with their purchases.
Additional Es and Fs are going to be bought. But I don’t think any flag staff will stick their necks out and use this as an impetus for it. Look at what happened with the Air Force brass and the F-15 grounding fiasco.
DC2
I personally consider the F-35 a big waste of money, maybe the navy version is less wasteful since they wont have support of the F-22. But with the support of the F-22, F-15E and F-16 are more than capable of doing their job.
Sorry sorry i got off topic my point is if we abandon new technologies like the jsf or f-18 or sub building or any of it when we come out of the slump were in if were not carful the ability to build it may be gone.
Hell the french are having to help show us how to build civilian reactors again
This probably isn’t an argument for either F/A-18E/F or F-35C. Sounds like the problem is something that can be repaired fairly easily, unlike structural problems previously found in F-15s. This isn’t the F-18′s first problem with structural cracking, either, if you recall the tail flutter issue in the 1980s or the centre barrel fatigue issues in older fleets like the Canadian Armed Forces. This more of a reminder that planes get old, wear out, and should eventually be replaced by something new, whether a new design or just a new airframe.