McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet

what is it?

The McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet (official military designation CF-188) is a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) variant of the American McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft. In 1980, the F/A-18 was selected as the winner of the New Fighter Aircraft Project competition to replace the CF-104 Starfighter, CF-101 Voodoo and the CF-116 Freedom Fighter. Deliveries of the CF-18 to the Canadian Armed Forces began in 1982.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 jet engines · 12.2 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 1,814 km/htop speed
• size 23.4 tmax take-off weight
• built 138made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 48 years ago, in 1978.
• 🏎️Top speed is 14.0× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 💥Faster than sound: up to Mach 1.5 (sea-level speed of sound ≈ 1,235 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 12.2 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 4 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🏔️Can fly 1.7× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

1978-11-18

introduced

1983

status

still flying

number built

138

role

multirole fighter

origin

🇺🇸 United States

engines

2× General Electric F404-GE-400

crew

1

length

17.1 m

wingspan

12.2 m

height

4.7 m

max take-off weight

23.4 t

top speed

1,814 km/h

range

—

ceiling

15,240 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.

family