F/A-18 Legacy Hornet Breakdown

[Dave Roof]

Here is a simple breakdown of the F/A-18 Hornet by BuNo.

If you have any more questions, or something doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll do my best to answer them for you.

Dave






F/A-18A/B - BuNo 161353 thru 163175
*Analog fuel display, large square center MFD in cockpit

F/A-18C/D 'Early' - BuNo 163427 thru 163782
*Digital fuel display, large square center MFD in cockpit

F/A-18C/D 'Late' - BuNo 163985 thru 165532 (165532 was the last F/A-18D built. 165526 the last F/A-18C)
*Digital fuel display, center MFD with upper corners "angled"

SJU-5/6 ejection seat - All F/A-18A/B

SJU-5/6 ejection seat - F/A-18C/D BuNo 163427 thru 164068

SJU-17 NACES ejection seat - F/A-18C/D BuNo 164196 thru 165532

Dual AN/ALE-47 chaff/flare buckets (two under each intake) - BuNo 165171 thru 165532

AN/APX-111 IFF (5 blade antenna on nose):
-BuNo 165222 thru 165532
-BuNo 162394 thru 163175 (F/A-18A+ Mod AFC 292)
-BuNo 163985 thru 165221 (F/A-18C/D IFF upgrade AFC 236)

GPS Dome - BuNo 164945 thru 165532

Antenna on nose strut door - F/A-18D BuNo 164279 thru 165532

Antenna on starboard forward nose wheel well door - BuNo 163434 thru 164272

Doors 5L and 5R (forward nose, aft of radome below windscreen) F/A-18A/B BuNo 161353 thru 162477

ATARS - F/A-18D BuNo 164649 and up (aircraft are wired for system, but not all carry it)

Stiffening 'cleats' at interior base of vertical tails where they meet the fuselage - BuNo 161353 thru 163699

[Sabre Freak]

This has been one of my favorit Hornet reference sources...I can't tell you how many times I've done the search on Hyperscale to try to relocate it.

But I do have some questions for you.

I've been putting together some notes about the tails and was curious if you might have some additional information.

The real early F-18s had no cleats, a real short what I think was a radar warning receiver, and no what I recall was ASPJ...Here is a pic

http://www.cybermodeler.net/aircraft...c-84-07518.jpg

Do you know when the cleats were added? The longer radar receiver?

http://www.cybermodeler.net/aircraft...d-06-02999.jpg

No big deal...I used to have access to all this stuff when I worked for Northrop...Just trying to "refresh" my memory.

[Mist]

Has the Rhino in any service been put in the Iron Hand roll? Can they even carry the shrike?

[Dave Roof]

Originally Posted by Mist

Has the Rhino in any service been put in the Iron Hand roll? Can they even carry the shrike?

AGM-45 Shrike is no longer used. From my understanding, it has been out of the inventory since the early to mid 90's.

Dave

[Mist]

Sorry about the dumb questions Dave, but i just started referencing this. So are the main radar suppression missiles the Harms now? And will the Growlers be armed or just electronic suppression?

[Spaced]

When Hornets took part in the raids on Libya, El Dorado Canyon, what did they carry?

[Dave Roof]

Originally Posted by Mist

Sorry about the dumb questions Dave, but i just started referencing this. So are the main radar suppression missiles the Harms now? And will the Growlers be armed or just electronic suppression?

No such thing as a dumb question. Ask anything you need to, that's what we're here for. Yep, HARM is it.

Originally Posted by Spaced

When Hornets took part in the raids on Libya, El Dorado Canyon, what did they carry?

AGM-88 HARM

Somewhere in all of my files, I have ordnance loads that were provided by VMFA-314 pilots that flew some of those missions. I'll dig through my stuff this week and see if I can find them.

Dave

[Alan Kelley]

So, I am thinking of backdating my Hasegawa f-18D to a B and doing it in the Fighting Omars adversary scheme. Can anyone tell me what the main changes are between the two airframes?

I am sure this question has been asked before but I could not find any photo references.

Many thanks, Alan.

[Creighton Henthorn Jr]

well the Hasegawa kit is more a B than it is a D. everything you need to build a B is in the kit except the tails. those will need to be sorced from an A kit and those are hard to come by these days. then again if the demand was high enough...... i may know someone that may have cast them in resin for their own personal use.

[Alan Kelley]

Mnay thanks for the reply- I might have an old Monogram kit lying around somewhere- might be able to take the tails from it and see if they mate up.

[Josh1971]

Regarding the Aussie and Spanish Hornets, did they use the SJU-5/6 seat? And what sorts of A/G weapons do those countries load up with on their hornets?

jb

[Motty]

G'day Josh,

I don't know about the Spanish jets but we use the SJU 9a/10a seats in our Hornets (10a in the front and the 9a in the rear of the duals). I think the difference is in the harness arrangement used compared to the US seats.

The most likely A-G weapons you are likely to see on our jets would be the Mk82 & 84 family of bombs (they don't often load much in the way of live weapons).

AB decals included a good weapons chart for the various loads that our jets carried when they were operating in the Middle East as well.

Cheers,
Motty.

[Josh1971]

Thanks Motty- that's good info. I was thinking of doing MERs with slant loaded Mk.82s.

And how about the GBU-24?

jb

[Motty]

G'day Josh,

We don't have MERs (the only MERs I can recall seeing on any Hornets are USN examples and, even then, only with small practice weapons).

We don't carry GBU-24s on our Hornets either. I think the Pigs might but not the Hornets.

Here are some links which I hope might help you with some ideas (some of the photos are very large, so I haven't embedded them directly).
http://img322.imageshack.us/img322/6168/img1269yu3.jpg

http://www.sflorg.com/aviation/image...1907_01_02.jpg

http://www.defence.gov.au/media/down...0-285-0033.jpg

http://www.defence.gov.au/media/down...738_026_hi.jpg

http://www.defence.gov.au/media/down...0624/index.htm

http://images.google.com.au/imgres?i...3Doff%26sa%3DN

I hope they help.

Cheers,
Motty.

[Josh1971]

Yep- those will be very helpful, thanks! JDAMs will be nice to throw on there.

jb

[Motty]

No worries mate. Glad to help.

Any load will be fairly speculative as, as I say, we don't carry the exotic, live stuff very often.

Do you have a particular jet / time period in mind?

Cheers,
Motty.

[Josh1971]

Originally Posted by Motty

No worries mate. Glad to help.

Any load will be fairly speculative as, as I say, we don't carry the exotic, live stuff very often.

Do you have a particular jet / time period in mind?

Cheers,
Motty.

Nope- it will be just my own little time line, so I'll probably do a mixed load: fuel on the center, some GBU-38, and perhaps some mavericks, LGBs, or whatever I look at that day and decide *has* to go on the plane.

But I will be doing the ASRAAMs on the wingtips.

jb

[Dave Roof]

Originally Posted by Josh1971

Thanks Motty- that's good info. I was thinking of doing MERs with slant loaded Mk.82s.

And how about the GBU-24?

jb

Josh,

Just an FYI, but MK-82 is not cleared for use on the MER when loaded on the F/A-18.

The only items cleared for the MER on a Hornet are MK-76 25lb practice bombs, LGTR's (laser guided training rounds), and LUU-2 flares.

Dave

[Josh1971]

Thanks Dave. Yeah, it seems like the smurf killers were the only thing I've seen on a MER mounted on a Hornet, thinking back on pics.

[Sabre Freak]

First off, I think most of the folks on this site already know the differences, but I did some research, bought the kits, and took some pictures. So I figured I'd post in case anybody wants to know.

Background:
There are a bunch of cool decals on the market for the F/A-18A. From what I have read, the Hasagawa offering is the all around favorite, but is long OOP. I figure it will be re-popped at some point in the future; it doesn’t seem to be on anybody’s radar for the near term. If you are like me, you didn’t stock up on A models when you had the chance.

In the dark times between Nov. 08 and the birth of Z5, I posted a WTB message over YKW for Has -18A kits. The overwhelming response was to take a C, sand off the middle radar warning receiver on the tail and vola’, you’ll have an A. I wasn’t so sure. I did some research, read a lot of opinions, but couldn’t find anything conclusive that proved one way or another that’s all you had to do. Sure, there are plenty of sites you can look at pictures of the real airplanes, but I couldn’t find anything that compared the plastic side by side.

Since it was LONG overdue that I purchase any kind of Hornet (I used to work on the real ones at Northrop for chris sake) I took the plunge and purchased a C (through the usual channels) and finally outbid somebody on E-bay for an A. I don’t want to try to use this thread to tell folks how to build a more accurate A or a more accurate C (others far more knowledgeable than I can provide that information), just trying to show what different between the boxes. Hopefully I present enough information that you can draw your own conclusions about the feasibility of converting a C to an A

So, here is what I’ve learned…

Sprues. You can find this information on Modeling Madness, but I thought it appropriate to post some scans of the back of the instructions so you can see for yourself

A model sprues:



C model sprues:



As you can see, both kits include the same sprues, except for the one containing the tails. An “A” boxing has an E sprue and the “C” boxing has an F sprue. The F sprue in the “C” boxing also contains an additional nose gear door with an 18C specific antenna.

How is the plastic different for the tails? Here is a picture: (18A is left, 18C is right)



To my eye, there are 3 differences. First, obviously, the 18C has a 3rd antenna there in the middle of the other two. According to my source, its and AN-ALQ-67. This is the one you sand off to vola', "get" an 18A. Second is the shape of the longer antenna closest to the rudder. According to my source on an 18C it's the AN/ALQ-165. On an 18A, I don't know what its called. On the plastic (and pictures of the real aircraft, if you look close enough) the shapes are different. The 18A is smaller and more "cone" shape, the 18C is bigger and more of a cylindrical shape. Admittedly it is subtle. I missed it the first time I compared "real" airplane pictures, but they are different. The third, in this view (outboard looking in) is at the base. The 18C has a step that the 18A doesn't.

So there you have it. You're either happy to sand off the extra antenna and call it close enough, you're skilled enough to grab some putty, stryne and glue to correct it the old fasion way, you're crafty enough to get 1 18A kit and cast your own tails, or, like me, you'll be watching E-bay till Hasagawa re-pops the 18A.

FYI...If you want to learn more about the legacy Hornet, I recomend the following sources:

Dave Roof's pinned thread "Hornet Breakdown" at the top of this forum:

http://www.zone-five.net/showthread.php?t=250

Creighton Henthorn's "Hornets Nest":

http://www.mawdecals.com/creightonsm...rnetsNest.html

Plus there are BUNCH of build threads that show the little corrections you can make to get a more accurate representation of the version you are trying to make.

Thanks for reading...