The first F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter becomes a monument in Saint Louis

@DefAviation ES 8·17·2024 · 23:35 0

The excellent F/A-18E Super Hornet naval multirole fighter made its first flight in 1995, so in 2025 it will be 30 years old.

An excellent video that explains the F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter and its armament
The deafening takeoff of four Super Hornets fighters recorded from just a few meters away

The Super Hornet, a greatly improved and enlarged derivative of the famous McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet (which made its first flight on November 18, 1978), entered service in 1999 and 25 years later is the most numerous fighter aircraft in the United States Navy, with 421 units of both the F/A-18E (single-seat) and F/A-18F (two-seat) versions, plus another 76 that have been ordered, as the aircraft is still in production today, to which must be added 153 EA-18G Growler, the electronic warfare version.

The Hornet, Super Hornet and Growler have replaced a wide range of naval aircraft that had been designed for very different missions: the F-14 Tomcat interceptors, the A-6 Intruder bombers, the A-7 Corsair II attack aircraft, the Lockheed S-3 Viking anti-submarine warfare aircraft, the KA-6D tanker aircraft and the EA-6B Prowler electronic warfare aircraft.

The US Naval Air Force has never had an aircraft capable of covering so many different missions, which explains the success of the Super Hornet, although its exports have not been as good as expected: in addition to the US Navy, it is only operated by the Royal Australian Air Force and the Kuwaiti Air Force.

The Super Hornet was born in St. Louis, Missouri. This is where the McDonnell Douglas factory was located, a company later acquired by Boeing. This is where the aircraft manufacturer still manufactures the F/A-18 Super Hornet and also the F-15EX Eagle II. This is where the F/A-18 E1, the first of all Super Hornets, was built, an airplane with construction number 165164. It was there, at Lambert Field, that this Super Hornet made its first flight on November 29, 1995.

Following flight testing of this model, the F/A-18 E1 was used for training duties in St. Louis in preparation for the sale of this model to Kuwait. I have not found much information about this aircraft, but I deduce that it must have ended up in the warehouses of the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida, since that center loaned it in December 2023 to the National Transportation Museum in St. Louis to be displayed there.

The plane arrived at the St. Louis museum unassembled and was restored by a group of Boeing employees. The work included a complete repaint of the plane. In late July, the plane was installed outside the museum, as if it were a monument. An unveiling ceremony was held on August 3. Yesterday Boeing dedicated this video to the new home of the F/A-18 E1:

Boeing has highlighted that this is the first Super Hornet to be displayed in a museum. From now on, the F/A-18 E1 can be admired in the city where it was built and where it made its first flight.

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Photos: Boeing / U.S. Navy / The National Museum of Transportation.