F18e SuperHornet UP - String Art

F/A-18E/F Super Hornet entered fleet service in 1999, as the replacement for the F-14 Tomcat. The Super Hornet is the second major model upgrade since the inception of the F/A-18 aircraft program highly capable across the full mission spectrum: air superiority, fighter escort, reconnaissance, aerial refueling, close air support, air defense suppression and day/night precision strike. The single-seat F/A-18E and the two-seat F/A-18F are high performance, twin-engine, mid-wing, and multi-mission tactical aircraft designed to replace the F/A-18C (single-seat) and F/A-18D (two-seat) aircraft as they reach the end of their service lives and retire.   The U.S. Navy's Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron has proudly flown the F/A-18 Hornet since 1986, but began transition to the F/A-18 Super Hornet in 2020.   The Hornet and Super Hornet comprise the aviation strike force for seven foreign customers including Canada, Australia, Finland, Kuwait, Malaysia, Spain and Switzerland, with many more international partners expressing interest in the proven and versatile platforms.   The F/A-18 E and F Super Hornet were rolled out at McDonnell Douglas (now a part of Boeing) in 1995. The E is a single seat and the F is a two-seater. The dual-seat variant serves as a trainer in addition to bringing added mission capacity on deployment by facilitating shared workload.   Primary Function: Multi-role attack and fighter aircraftContractor: McDonnell Douglas (now The Boeing Company)Date Deployed: First flight in November 1995. Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in September 2001 with VFA-115, NAS Lemoore, California. First cruise for VFA-115 is onboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Unit Cost: $67.4 million (FY21)Propulsion: Two F414-GE-400 turbofan engines. 22,000 pounds (9,977 kg) static thrust per engineLength: 60.3 feet (18.5 meters)Height: 16 feet (4.87 meters)Wingspan: 44.9 feet (13.68 meters)Weight: Maximum Take Off Gross Weight is 66,000 pounds (29,932 kg)Airspeed: Mach 1.8+Ceiling