Brace yourself for a savage display of F-18 Hornet prowess as the Swiss Air Force takes the stage at Sanicole International Airshow 2022! Against a backdrop of cloudy skies and wet conditions, the F-18 Hornet tears through the heavens, leaving trails of clouds and vortices in its wake. Prepare to be captivated by extreme loaded rolls, tight turns, post-stall spins, knife-edge passes, and a transonic flyby that will leave you breathless. This performance is as real as it gets, showcasing the raw power and skill of the Swiss pilot!

Jokes and poetry aside, I'm pretty sure you have all watched TopGun: Maverick at this point (great movie!), and although the title is obvious clickbait, you gotta give it to the swiss pilot that he pulled quite the show with the Hornet in these wet-weather conditions! :D
Those extreme loaded rolls with all the LERX vortice fluff swirling around were quite the treat... not to mention the tight turns, knife edge pass and transonic flyby! :D

And this ain't Hollywood, y'know! ^^

The F-18 Hornet is a twin-engine, supersonic, all-weather, carrier-capable, multirole combat jet, designed as both a fighter and attack aircraft. Designed by McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing and Northrop), the F-18 was derived from the latter's YF-17 in the 1970s for use by the United States Navy and Marine Corps.

The F/A-18 has excellent aerodynamic characteristics, primarily attributed to its leading edge root extensions, that coupled with a digital fly-by-wire control system, allow the Hornet to remain controllable at high angles of attack. The trapezoidal wing has a 20-degree sweepback on the leading edge and a straight trailing edge. Canted vertical stabilizers are another distinguishing design element, one among several other such elements that enable the Hornet's excellent high angle of attack ability, including oversized horizontal stabilators, oversized trailing-edge flaps that operate as flaperons, large full-length leading-edge slats, and flight control computer programming that boosts the jet's maneuverability.

The Hornet is also notable for having been designed to reduce maintenance, and as a result, has required far less downtime than its heavier counterparts, the F-14 Tomcat and the A-6 Intruder. Its mean time between failures is three times greater than any other Navy strike aircraft, and requires half the maintenance time. Its General Electric F404 engines were also innovative in that they were designed with operability, reliability, and maintainability first. The engine, while unexceptional in rated performance, demonstrates exceptional robustness under various conditions and is resistant to stall and flameout.

The engine air inlets of the Hornet, like that of the F-16, are of a simpler "fixed" design, while those of the F-4, F-14, and F-15 have variable geometry or variable intake ramp air inlets. This is a speed-limiting factor in the Hornet design. Instead, the Hornet uses bleed-air vents on the inboard surface of the engine intake ducts to slow and reduce the amount of air reaching the engine. While not as effective as variable geometry, the bleed-air technique functions well enough to achieve near Mach 2 speeds, which is within the designed mission requirements.


SPECIFICATIONS

Crew: 1
Length: 17.1 m
Wingspan: 12.3 m
Height: 4.7 m
Wing area: 38 m2
Aspect ratio: 4
Airfoil: root: NACA 65A005 mod.; tip:NACA 65A003.5 mod.
Empty weight: 10433 kg
Gross weight: 16769 kg
MTOW: 23541 kg
Fuel capacity: 4930 kg internally
Powerplant: 2 × General Electric F404-GE-402 afterburning turbofan engines, 49 kN thrust each dry, 79 kN with afterburner
Maximum speed: Mach 1.8 (1915 km/h at 12000 m)
Cruise speed: 1062 km/h
Range: 2017 km
Combat range: 741 km air-air mission
Ferry range: 3334 km
Service ceiling: 15000 m
Rate of climb: 250 m/s
Wing loading: 450 kg/m2
Thrust/weight: 0.96 (1.13 with loaded weight at 50% internal fuel)

More info here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonne...

International Sanicole Airshow official homepage:
https://www.sanicole.com/en/

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